


Maintaining Balance

by Talik_Sanis



Series: A Delicate Balance of Flavours - An Adrigaminette Series [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Is Sunshine, Adrigaminette, Bisexual Disaster Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Kagami Tsurugi, Bisexual Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Bisexuality, Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fencing, Flirting, Fluff, Hot Mess Adrien Agreste, Hot Mess Marinette Dupain-Cheng, LGBTQ Female Character, Multi, Platonic Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Chat Noir, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Pre-Poly, Sassy Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Secret Relationship, Smooth Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Thirsty Marinette Dupain-Cheng
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23395435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talik_Sanis/pseuds/Talik_Sanis
Summary: Adrien and Kagami's meticulously-arranged schedules have finally aligned to allow them the chance to spend time together with their girlfriend, a certain neophyte fashion designer with a heart of gold and the cutest case of foot-in-mouth disease that either of them have ever seen.Marinette is finally going out on a date with her new boyfriend and girlfriend. Wait. Did anyone tell her that?Kagaminette bisexual awakening; Adrigami competitive flirting; Marichat shenanigans; and Adrigaminette relationship discussions. All with a side of character growth.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrigaminette - Relationship, Luka Couffaine & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffraine/Marinette Dupain-Chang | Ladybug (One-Sided), Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi
Series: A Delicate Balance of Flavours - An Adrigaminette Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682845
Comments: 99
Kudos: 471
Collections: A Delicate Balance of Flavors - An Adrigaminette Series (without the Explicit ones) written by Talik_Sanis





	1. Winners Get the Girl I

**Author's Note:**

> To understand this work and its sequels, you will benefit from reading its prequel ["A Delicate Balance of Flavours,"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21043319) which is a rewrite of the Adrigaminette quasi-poly date in Heart-Hunter/Love-Eater.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami and Adrien invite Marinette on a date, unbeknownst to her, in order to assess her feelings and attempt to confirm Kagami's theory. 
> 
> Marinette is a bursting seam line.

_I'm coming apart at the seams..._

_Oh, Lord, was that a sewing pun?_

_Chat Noir's … Chat Noir is contagious._

Today, Marinette had two incongruous questions tearing her apart, as she herself had observed, like a bursting seam.

Her blood burned with the existential question: “Why am I here?”

Yet it warred for her attention with the more extreme query, which fought to push such trite introspection aside: “ _Am_ I really here?”

The source of the former was obvious: there was no reason for her to be here, seated on one of the benches in the spacious gymnasium of Monsieur Armand D'Argencour's fencing academy, watching, mouth perpetually ever-so-slightly agape, as Kagami and Adrien dueled once again. Both nimble teens were lost in an all-but incomprehensible dance of thrusts, parries, and ripostes, so well matched that it really should have hurt Marinette to watch.

Well, there _was_ a reason she was here: her _friends_ had invited her, but why?

Hence the second question: was this real life, or was it just delusional fantasy – a fever dream conjured by her mind to torture herself? Had Adrien's implicit rejection, tempered though it may have been by the ambiguous pleasure of their shared ice cream, caused her to go insane? Whatever lingering “magic” remained from the gentle exchange between the trio had surely given way to madness once they parted.

Really, with her kleptomania and catastrophizing, she had already been halfway there – not to mention the evidence provided by her bizarre applications of Tikki's "Lucky Charms." After all, what sane person used a spoon to fish for magic spandex/leather-clad cat-boys?

There could be no sound justification for being invited on a date between Kagami and Adrien, so it was entirely possible that she _wasn't_ actually here.

That made sense, right?

And it was a date, clearly. However strange it might be, the two somewhat socially-awkward teens did likely consider a rather vigorous sparring match "a date."

The pair occupying Marinette's thoughts had parted for a final time, Adrien landing a stunning, unexpected touch to Kagami's mid-section as she over-committed in an opening lunge, having, it seemed, lost herself in a bout of impetuousness. A flourished salute was shared between them before the couple, almost in unison, tucked their foils away and slipped off their head-gear, approaching the bench on which Marinette had settled to watch the match ... which had become a best of three, then best of five, then best of nine tournament.

After that, they had simply lost count.

Exertion had left Adrien's unblemished skin glistening with sweat, his normally pristine locks disheveled by his mask and matted to his forehead. His chest heaved as he gulped down heavy breaths.

Fumbling in his bag for a moment after setting aside his gauntlets and helmet, he let out a throaty huff, emerging with a perspiring bottle of water and cracking the seal before tossing the cap into a nearby bin (recycling, of course, because Adrien Agreste was too perfect to ever add unnecessarily to the nation's landfills, Marinette knew). Beads of sweat coalesced at his jawline and trailed across the smooth flesh of his throat as he tossed his head back, swallowing down half the bottle's contents in one long swig.

Oh, the lucky mouth of that bottle.

“So thirsty,” Marinette mumbled under her breath, shaking her head at herself before releasing a muffled yelp as Adrien glanced in her direction.

“I-I mean _you're_ so thirsty,” she squeaked, covering her mouth with the palm of her hand, her next words coming out in a mumble, “Because you've been working out.”

_Which was obvious; way to go, Marinette! Why was she like this? Why was she not over this?_

“You can have a swig, if you'd like, Marinette. There's no need to be shy.” The soft smile, hearty and gentle, with which he favoured her stalled her self-deprecating spiral of negative cognition, and had her spinning her mental wheels, caught in an entirely different thought.

Kagami, who coughed to catch Marinette's attention, was, as Marinette realized when she turned to the source of the sound, in much the same state as Adrien. She rolled her shoulder, tossing her head to the side, frowning in the other girl's direction.

Had Kagami seen her staring? Was she upset – of course she was upset at having some interloping fan tag along so that she could drool over a boy who had already been taken.

A few minutes spent eating ice cream together on a park bench, and the liberties that Marinette had been granted with Kagami's .... boyfriend didn't change anything.

“Marinette,” Kagami began, wiping her brow with a towel from her own bag, smoothing her hair back into place along her brow-line, “are you alright? You look slightly flushed.”

“She's right, Marinette.” A slowly-spreading look of what Marinette thought must have been queasiness seemed to darken Adrien's features as he lowered the bottle that he had proffered to her moments earlier. “If you're not feeling well, my driver can be here in a few minutes to take you home.”

Before Marinette could think to reply, Kagami cut in once again. “I too could call for a car,” she said with a furtive glance in Adrien's direction. “Neither of us would want you walking if you're under the weather.”

And that was the answer to her existential question. Of course Adrien and Kagami alike were just trying to be sweet when they invited her to join them. It was the same reason that they asked her to share their ice cream: mingled pity and compassion. Adrien was too nice to say it, or to even be conscious of his desire for solitude with his girlfriend, but subconsciously he wanted her gone. However harsh she might have been when she viewed Marinette as competition – and what a joke that was; as if she could ever compete with the far more beautiful, poised, and talented Japanese girl – Kagami was magnanimous in victory out of concern for their burgeoning friendship.

It would only be polite for her to leave.

“What? Me? - Ha. No-” That... came out more as a half screech than the coolly confident deflection that Marinette had intended.

Worry lines creased the skin around the models' eyes – and yes, they were both gorgeous enough to be models – as they squinted at her, Adrien setting aside his water bottle and pausing for a moment before taking a step in her direction. Kagami, on the other hand, was far more decisive, surging towards her without a hint of hesitation to press a palm to the other girl's forehead.

Towel-dried fingers, still slightly clammy, tucked under Marinette's hairline, their pressure firm and constant for a moment. Her face descended to Marinette's level, and the bluenette could have sworn that she caught sight of some calculating gleam in the other girl's eyes. Her mouth was parted slightly, releasing puffs of breath as the winded fencer recovered.

Marinette could only just hold back a spastic shudder.

_Oh, God. She does know. Of course she knows that I was staring because everyone but Adrien knows how I feel and that's only because I'm a lying coward who told him that I was only a fan who didn't have feelings for him and-_

“You don't feel as if you're running a fever,” Kagami mused as she pulled away with what Marinette would have thought, had she not known better, was an intentional, if light, ghosting of fingertips across the Chinese girl's temple and cheek.

The feathery touch left in its wake hyper-sensitive skin, tingling under the blush of embarrassment that ruddied Marinette's entire face.

“You're fine – I mean I'm fine,” Marinette stuttered as she cast her arms apart and waggled her hands ... for some reason, leaping to her feat. “Adrien's fine too-” _Damn it, why!_ “We're all fine because why wouldn't we be?”

The heavenly chuckle that spilled forth from Adrien's mouth was almost enough to make Marinette's embarrassment worthwhile.

“I'm glad to hear that we're all fine, Marinette, though I am more than a little tired.”

The blonde model strode towards both girls, a newly formed smile that was certainly, in no way, a downright swoon-worthy and utterly un-Adrien-Agreste smirk blooming across his features, but the smooth grace of his motions was undercut by a ... butt wiggle? A sashaying of the hips that must have been a combination of a trick of the light and awkward motions caused by chaffing from the bulky protective gear he wore while fencing.

“You are starting to look a bit better,” Adrien observed, coming to stand next to Kagami as he reached out a hand to Marinette. “So are you ready for your turn with me?”

“My turn?” Marinette squeaked.

“Of course,” Kagami supplied in an absent tone. “Why do you think that we invited you? We were going to fence.”

A sense of deja vu overtook Marinette as a second hand, graceful and feminine, despite the slightly dusky calluses that dotted the proximal ridges just below each finger, was extended to her.

“But I don't know how and I don't have any equipment. I couldn't – I mean-” She could only stare at the two teens before her as she stumbled over her own thoughts.

“You needn't worry, Marinette.” Kagami's tone and outstretched hand remained steady, cool, stable. “In case of emergencies, I keep another set of gear in my locker. You and I have similar body types, so we thought that you might want to use it.”

“But I still don't know how,” Marinette very nearly groused. It was all but unfathomable that they should be so persistent – so kind. How could Kagami be comfortable sharing her time with Adrien when it was so limited?

“Mari,” - Adrien called her _Mari_ ; Marinette's heart almost stopped – “you know how well you did during your tryout. For a novice, you showed real potential, and besides, it's not about winning; it's about having fun with friends.”

“Indeed, Marinette. I've softened him up for you. I'm quite certain that-” there was a half-second's pause as she cast her gaze towards Adrien before finishing her sentence, “we can handle him, between the two of us.”

For some reason that escaped Marinette, Adrien seemed to choke on nothing, taking a single, stumbling step backwards in an uncharacteristic show of clumsiness. It was so utterly unlike him, occasional bouts of endearing dorkiness aside, that she could not fathom the reason. Hands fumbling about to find purchase, nearly tripping over the bench behind him, he cast his eyes, an even more vibrant and enticing green than usual now that they had blown abnormally wide, between Kagami and Marinette, jaw working as if he was trying to mouth a response.

Before she could mull over his reaction to the promise of a second fencing match, Marinette herself started upwards when her laser-eyed focus on the model was broken by the sensation of a hand closing around her own, tugging her away from the still apparently stunned Agreste heir, who was now starting blankly at the far wall, shifting in his seat as if he was sitting on a burr.

Though she had lost the most recent bout with Adrien, Kagami, for whatever reason, sported an expression that Marinette could only describe as “smug” as the fencing prodigy squeezed Marinette's fingers before dragging her away from Adrien.

_Weird._

“Give Adrien a minute to calm down after our match. You can come with me to the women's locker room. I'll get changed and help you into my spare gear.”

And, as she was dragged away by the insistent yet stoic fencer, Marinette resigned herself to the sweet torture that was to come: staring into Adrien's beatific face for an hour of fencing practice while knowing that he could never be anything more than he was at this moment – just a friend.


	2. Winners Get the Girl II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette prepares, physically and emotionally, for her fencing lesson with Kagami and Adrien and the three wind down their date.
> 
> Will Marinette figure that out before it ends?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating increased to teen and up. We all remember how teenagers tend to think. Also locker-room-appropriate states of undress.

Marinette found herself deposited, without word or ceremony, in the girls' locker room, steam and the thin white noise of cascading water from the nearby showers wafting into the changing area. A wide array of fencing equipment – a padded suit, gauntlets, mesh mask, and assorted items that Marinette could not hope to name – lay in a regimented line along the bench beside her.

Stitch-work was clean and effective – nothing popped or strained. Fabric coloration was a uniform vibrant red, Kagami and Ladybug's colour; no sun-bleaching or weathering. Folding the suit itself onto her lap to trail a palm down the surface of the stomach and chest, Marinette met rough but even padding, free from indentations or deformations.

Marinette turned to place the thick uniform back on the bench beside her, nose wrinkling at the lingering chemical odour that wafted upwards from the suit.

Her tongue clucked against the roof of her mouth as she cast her gaze towards the locker wherein she had stored her handbag and a Kwami who was, no doubt, silently munching on a collection of oatmeal-raisin cookies, each one larger than her head, scattering crumbs throughout Marinette's purse. Tikki, for all her childish affectations, possessed a sagacity that Marinette envied. She could certainly use some of that wisdom right now, but there was no time to consult her Kwami; Kagami could reappear at any moment.

Perhaps the little demi-god would advise her to leave, though it had grown increasingly difficult to extract any meaningful advice from the Kwami these days.

Tikki, obviously failing to understand the nuances of human romantic relationships, had only giggled when Marinette had informed her earlier that week that Adrien and Kagami had invited her along on yet another one of their dates.

Despite Marinette's extensive lamentations, the little goddess had flitted about the room, humming idly to herself while ducking in and out of Marinette's potted flowers and offering exaggerated assurances that everything with Kagami and Adrien would work out “perfectly fine,” which was really rather insensitive in Marinette's view. Though she wanted her friends to be happy, she had hoped that Tikki would be a little bit more sensitive to her feelings and conscious of the implications of the date and its impact on Marinette herself. Yes, Adrien and Kagami were “so cute” together – or separately – but Tikki didn't have to flit around mumbling it, occasionally staring in Marinette's direction while doing so, as if enraptured by the prospect of them being so.

For all the little goddess' attempts to offer advice when Marinette was pursuing Adrien, it seemed that Tikki just didn't understand human relationships.

Before diving into Marinette's purse, she had merely clapped her nubby hands together in excitement at the pile of cookies before her and told the young girl to “have fun on her date,” without even giving Marinette the time to explain that it was far from _her_ date; she was accompanying Adrien and Kagami on _their_ date.

Tikki was, in fact, so utterly lost that she had counselled Marinette against trying to forget Adrien, frowning and flicking cookie fragments about Marintte's desk like a petulant child playing with the Brussel sprouts he refused to eat, throughout the entire phone conversation that Marinette held with Luka before their first date a few weeks earlier.

The lecture that followed, wherein a stern-faced Tikki advised Marinette to guard the secrets of the Miraculous carefully and maintain proper distance from those outside of her coterie, had been utterly unexpected.

Not that Tikki had anything to worry about, as it turned out.

She had tried to spend time with Luka, who was painfully patient, understanding and sweet, moving at her pace and giving her space at the slightest hesitation or mere suggestion of discomfort.

Their dates proved enjoyable; his presence liberated her from the tension of expectation and all of the anxieties that still plagued her when she engaged with Adrien, even now when he seemed officially “taken.”

And, objectively, Luka was drop-dead gorgeous, skirting a line between refined and roguish with his deferential and considerate mannerisms and slight rebellious streak that was more the product of a poet's free-spirit than anything unsavoury that might set her papa's teeth on edge. He was no “Adrien Agreste,” teen supermodel and universally-beloved heartthrob, but still...

Then, Luka had kissed her.

It wasn't that she hadn't wanted him to do it. In fact, like the gentleman that he was, he had even asked if she would like him to kiss her – not if he _could_ , but if she _wanted_ him to – and her answer had been an emphatic, if fumbling, yes.

To be desired by anyone, let alone a dashing older boy, was heady and thrilling, reducing her to the kind of stuttering mess she knew that she was before Adrien, and, in that moment, it had seemed possible that the musician might be able to move her in the same way as the model for whom she had pined, futilely, for months.

Her first real kiss had been everything that a girl could hope; he was sweet and gentle, ghosting his lips across hers with a tentativeness born not from inexperience – she knew better – but concern for her boundaries, a tender care that she could feel through the soft flesh pressed to her mouth. A calloused thumb smoothed over the back of her hand, held in his firm grip, rolling soothing circles around her knuckles.

He smelled of faint, tastefully applied cologne, tasted of mint from the gum that he must have sneaked in just for this moment, and his slow, measured breath played across her cheeks as he withdrew.

It was like kissing her papa.

Not that she would know what that was like, but she could assume.

Kissing Luka had been like planting one on a father, sister, or best friend.

Luka himself, however, had seemed utterly unaware of her discomforting realization, leaving her to turn into the Tom and Sabine Boulangerie with nothing more than an innocuous and somewhat smitten smile and a “Goodnight, Marinette.”

Most assuredly, Marinette did not have a good night.

 _Why_ was it just impossible to have non-platonic feelings for a guy other than Adrien? Chat, for all his dorky petulance, was willing to die for her. Luka adored Marinette despite her myriad flaws and failings. Nino had even confessed to crushing on her, or so she had been informed by Alya during one of their many sleepovers. Yet none of them could compete with Adrien Agreste, or hope to displace him from her affections.

Even the reality that Kagami now seemed to hold Adrien's heart couldn't convince her to give up on the boy. If Marinette truly valued the other girl as a friend, she should have been able to set aside her silly, juvenile feelings, but, no, it was impossible.

She was such a-

“-nette?”

Marinette jerked up in her seat, casting her eyes about her.

There, drying her still-dripping, tightly-cropped hair vigorously with the edge of the fluffy white towel strewn over her neck and shoulders, was Kagami herself, fresh from her shower.

Also shirtless.

A blue sports-bra concealed barely-visible curves; much like Marinette herself, Kagami was a rather slight young woman. She could not help but notice that there was a distinct contrast between the Japanese prodigy and herself, a girl whose formative years were spent sneaking pastries from her parents' bakery and enjoying meals heavy in rice, pastas, breads, and all manner of confections.

There was no denying the sight that greeted her when she stepped out of her morning shower and smoothed the steamy fog from her bathroom mirror to brush her teeth: an eternal, slight – and quite _healthy_ , though try telling that to Adrien's father - paunchiness to her midsection.

Kagami, on the other hand, was _cut_...

Wiry muscles arched along her upper arms, flexing alongside the tight bundle of sinew in her shoulder as strode towards the Chinese girl. Finely-sculpted abs, rippling under soft skin, trailed downwards from her lower sternum, disappearing into the waistline of a low-riding pair of jeans. A rouge flush from the lingering heat of her shower highlighted the curves of muscle, which were still several shades lighter than the tanned flesh of her face and throat.

“Marinette,” Kagami said before pulling the towel away and tossing it over her shoulders, “might you be able to assist me with something?”

“Abs...” Marinette slurred, shoulders falling slack. Something inside her purse, stowed safely in the locker behind her, squeaked just loudly enough for Marinette to make out.

“What?” The Japanese girl queried as she strode forward, slipping her towel from her shoulders and tossing it onto the end of the bench on which Marinette sat.

“Abs...Abs-so-lutely. It would- ba-absolutely be my pleasure!” Marinette squawked in a rush. “To yelp hew- help you!”

With a subtle nod of her head in Marinette's direction as if the baker hadn't just made an absolute idiot of herself four times over, Kagami turned to her own locker to rummage through its contents, giving Marinette time to mull and, characteristically, catastrophize.

_What the hell was that?_

Yes, Kagami struck an impressive figure, but she was a girl. Abs like that could easily have belonged to a guy. A really ripped guy. They were almost as impressive and unexpected as the six-pack that Adrien had unveiled during their trip to the pool, arranged, of course, by Alya in her unending quest to provide Marinette with opportunities to confess to the model.

It was hard to argue with the well-chiselled results of Gabriel Agreste's low-carb diet plan.

Or whatever diet Kagami's mother had imposed on her.

The other girl turned from her locker, giving Marinette yet another opportunity to ponder sexual dimorphism and the intricacies of abdominal muscles.

So, Marinette clearly had a thing for abs? So what? Abs were abs; it wasn't as if a person could tell a man and woman apart by their abs alone – it was basically the same thing. One set of smoothly defined, taut and rippling abs that shifted, bunched, and stretched with every arching motion of Kagami's torso, glistening with the faint, fresh residue of water left behind by her shower ...

_Damn it!_

“I'm sorry, Marinette,” Kagami began as she settled onto the bench next to the other girl. The fencer turned towards the sweating and wild-eyed girl. “Did you say something?”

That was as good question: had she said something? One could only hope not.

“Me – what? Ppft- No!” Marinette choked and sputtered. At least she thought that she hadn't said anything about the alluring aroma of peppermint and rosemary that had saturated Kagami's skin after her shower.

Brow quirked, Kagami saddled slightly closer to Marinette, and the wet heat radiating off of her was nearly enough to make Marinette sweat even more than she already was.

“Then would you mind?” Kagami began before hesitating and leaning into Marinette to press the back of her palm to the centre of her back, trailing the edge of her thumb under the pronounced curve of her shoulder blade. With a grunt, she continued: “ I tore a muscle and dislocated my shoulder blade about three years ago. Every so often, it seizes up, and I'm afraid that Adrien was rather hard on me today.”

Staring at the smooth expanse of skin, a slightly paler colour than her face and arms, and flexing muscle that encircled Kagami's shoulder blades, Marinette nearly swallowed her own throat.

And, yes, she realized, though what she'd learned in the human anatomy unit in biology class seemed to suggest that wasn't physically possible – well, what do you know? It seemed that it was.

With a tentative gesture, Marinette motioned for Kagami to join her on the bench, an invitation which the young fencer accepted without word, throwing her leg over the seat so that she faced away from the other girl.

The smooth planes of muscle on display trailed around into the divot that traced Kagami's spine, the full expanse of skin a perfect yellow-peach hue.

That same shower-heated skin burned Marinette's fingertips with a pleasant tingle as she made hesitant contact with the flesh that curved under Kagami's shoulder blade, dimpling under the pressure of her tight sports bra.

Pressing a thumb to Kagami's mid-back, Marinette smoothed over soft ridges of bone and muscle until she hit upon a thick, bulbous lump that seemed half-buried by Kagami's shoulder blade. After shifting her position to gain proper leverage, she pressed her thumb into the spot and ran it in light swirling motions, circling in towards the centre of the knot..

“Ugh,” Kagami grunted before she drew in a sharp intake of breath that sent the tingle in Marinette's fingertips arching up her body and into the base of her spine.

She- she kinda wanted to hear that again. Why did she want to hear that again?

Right. Because it was a clear sign that her ministrations were having the desired effect. Her slow, firm massage was clearing up the tension.

A curling of her fist allowed her to press the back of her knuckles into a wider area, spreading the force of her motion and allowing her to dig in with the weight of her upper body rather than the feeble pressure of her thumbs.

The throaty grunt that Kagami released almost caused Marinette to start

“Does that hurt?” she asked quickly, lessening the pressure for just a moment.

“No,” Kagami breathed as she leaned into Marinette's touch, head lolling forward. “It feels good.”

Another groan, lighter this time now that the worst of the tension had bled away, the hard pellet of muscle loosening to a small, soft orb under the gentle heat that had begun to build under Marinette's probing thumb. It pitched high and breathy, leaving Marinette squirming in her seat, chomping down on her lip to the point that she thought that she might remove a chunk of flesh.

Kagami's eyes fluttered open, her neck twisting slightly further to the point that Marinette could see them angling to gaze on Marinette's face, which she had schooled into an expression of studious focus.

“Is something wrong?” Kagami inquired with a quirk of her head, rendered even more awkward by the angle at which she was turned.

It was then that Marinette realized that her hands were now running slow circles around Kagami's exposed back, trailing the edge of her bra, the lumpy knots of tension having been worked out completely. She jerked her hands away as if Kagami was a mass of roiling serpents.

“Hot really- I mean not really!” Marinette shrieked with a vigorous shake of her head that could not have been more violent had she caught a dozen akuma in her hair.

“Well, that's good to know,” Kagami replied, swivelling on the bench so that she was facing the line of lockers before both girls. She rolled her shoulder once and sighed in contentment, eyes closed, taking in one long, deep breath.

“Much better. Thank you so much for being willing to help me, Marinette.” There was an earnest bashfulness to Kagami's expression that reminded Marinette of their first painful steps towards friendship as the fencer's lack of social graces and inexperience had left them both uncertain and halting in their interactions, despite the fact that they both had the best of intentions.

Her hand fell on Marinette's knee, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“You're a very generous friend, to both Adrien and me, and-” she paused as if questing for the right words. “And you should know how much we both appreciate you.”

The Japanese girl's arm, all hairless and unblemished skin, led up to the rounded curves of her shoulder and the graceful arch of her neck, below which lay the soft, compact swell of her bosom.

“I'm sot- Not!” Marinette coughed, subduing her gaze by affixing it assiduously to the floor. It wasn't polite in the least to stare in jealousy of Kagami's more impressive physique.

“I'm not special!” she began again.

A halting and momentary glance back towards Kagami's face revealed an expression of such profound confusion and disbelief that Marinette might as well have just suggested that Adrien Agreste was Hawkmoth and had been the good guy all along.

Of course, if Adrien really was Hawkmoth...

“You really believe that, don't you?” Kagami intoned, shaking her head, her tone airy, almost that of a child learning about some new wonder. “You really believe that you're not special.”

“Well, I'm not like you or Adrien – not a master fencer, or model, or journalist, or heiress, or amazing DJ, or-”

“Marinette!” Kagami exclaimed, tightening her grip on Marinette's lower thigh, the pressure causing her legs to tense in that pleasant, staticky way that she knew so well from all of the many hours spent staring at her wall of Adrien Agreste photographs. “You're being ridiculous. You're one of the kindest, sweetest people that I've ever seen. Being a fencer or a model doesn't compare to that.”

“Do-do you really think so?” Marinette asked, slow and soft.

“Marinette, you were my first friend, and you were Adrien's first friend- other than Chloe, and we both know that doesn't count. And, more than that, you were the best example of a friend that either of us could have asked for,” Kagami said with a dull earnestness, as if it was patently obvious and weighty at once.

Her lithe arms curled around Marinette and drew her into a momentary hug that allowed the neophyte fashion designer to appreciate the easy strength of Kagami's body, drawing her tight against the other girl's firm form. As Marinette mouthed out silent words, jaw flopping, fortunately outside of Kagami's range of vision, she was squeezed just slightly too tight, crushing the air from her, before her friend released her.

“Now, shall we rejoin Adrien?” Kagami asked abruptly as she veritably leapt to her feet and busied herself with digging about in her locker, face turned away.

Marinette could only slap her mouth closed into a twisted smile and nod – not that Kagami could see it as she pulled a blouse from her locker and slipped into it.

It took some time for Kagami to prepare herself; unruly fingers seemed to have inordinate difficulty with the buttons to her blouse.

When she did finally return to Marinette's side, she was able to help the slightly smaller girl through the process of donning her fencing equipment, illustrating the way in which each strap and tie was to be affixed and describing the function of each piece in exacting detail, instructions growing progressively more cool and detached as she worked her way through the paraphernalia as if she had prepared her lecture beforehand. .

Adrien only smiled and nodded in their direction when they emerged and joined him in the centre of the fencing area that remained unoccupied.

Over the course of their session, surprisingly gentle hands guided her through precise motions. Now that she was back in her element, Kagami seemed cool and laser-focused once again, at least externally, and though Marinette appreciated the softness of her motions, she was still a little bit ... forceful in her exhortations.

Still, Kagami's blunt, forthright appraisals and commands were counterbalanced by Adrien's smooth encouragements and soft smiles whenever he lifted the mesh mask of his fencing garb.

It was a pleasure to know that she was giving him a good workout. Each time they paused so that Kagami could step towards Marinette in order to reposition her arm or place a firm hand on her hip to adjust her stance, the heated flush of exertion was evident on his face.

All too quickly, however, the delirious and giddy dance shared between the three came to a close, the fencers' cell-phones, tucked away in their gym bags, signalling that they had just enough time to shower and change before their respective drivers came to retrieve them.

Kagami retired to the nearby benches to flip through something on her cell-phone, studying it with careful intent, and though Marinette expressed interest, she was shooed off into the locker room in order to clean off the sweat that had accumulated from her relatively hardy exercise.

Really, her adventures as Ladybug had left her with strength, dexterity, and stamina far in excess of most girls her age this side of Olympic athletes in-training like Kagami, and the short, halting bouts with Adrien hadn't been too taxing.

It was entirely nervous sweat, collecting steadily each moment that she stood next to Adrien and Kagami, fearing that she might let slip her feelings for the model, ruining her friendship with both him and his girlfriend.

It has been nothing less than sweet torture.

A somewhat indulgent steamy shower addressed the physical problem, but even the extended opportunity to mull over her situation offered her no solutions to the emotional one. She loved Adrien just as much as she ever had, and nothing seemed poised to change that.

And, when she emerged, purse slung over her shoulder, the boy himself stood there next to his girlfriend, gleaming and fresh-faced, hair wild and slightly moist in a style that mimicked that of Chat Noir.

Adrien must have been a fan.

He smelled of a rich, heady blend of green vetiver with just a hint of refreshing citrus to cut the heavier notes.

Marinette may have walked next to him on their way of the building and leaned in – _in an entirely clandestine and in no way spastic and clumsy fashion_ – to catch a more extensive whiff, just to pick out all the details.

 _Adrien: The Fragrance_ had nothing on whatever it was that he was wearing.

Probably because _he_ was wearing it.

Together, they strolled out the entryway to the D'Argencour's fencing academy, ambling down the steps that led out to the sidewalk. Adrien's driver had already arrived, standing, broad shoulders caught in their perpetual slouch or hump that made him appear even more boxy and robust, before the Agrestes' car.

A paired beckoning of Adrien with a finger and a quick tap to his watch was followed by his turning to open the door to the back seat.

An inexplicable sensation of disappointment welled up in Marinette's chest, causing her to glance off into the distance, away from the vehicle's cavernous interior. It wasn't in any way clear what, exactly, she had been expecting.

There was little time for her to contemplate the sensation, or the flutter of excitement that warred with it, as she watched Adrien turn to Kagami, the couple spending several seconds making doe-eyes at each other as Adrien took her hand into his own and stroked it gently. A soft word passed between them, but Marinette, having taken a few steps to the side to give them a polite amount of space, was unable to pick out anything specific.

The boy leaned in, his slow motion emphasizing the pronounced difference in their heights now that he had begun to grow into his adult body, pressing a lingering kiss to Kagami's cheek that had her reserved facade break into a full and dazzling smile, made all the more precious for its rarity.

They truly did deserve each other, and Marinette could only hope, as she stood off to the side, that they both appreciated how special the other was. Of course she couldn't compare to Kagami, but that was, as she had resolved, alright. They were both happy.

With a quiet farewell and a final squeeze of Kagami's hand, Adrien turned from his girlfriend. Expecting a simple salutation from the blonde as he departed, Marinette began to tremble as he turned not towards his car, but in her direction, coming to stand before her.

“Thank you for agreeing to come with us,” he said, gazing at her in a fashion that was so similar to the way that he looked at Kagami that it left Marinette sputtering incoherently.

The uncertain noises were cut off, as, it felt, was the beating of her heart, when he surged forward to press his lips to her cheek, lingering there for a timeless moment before withdrawing. In that span, there was nothing but the soft, tingling brush of his breath, the pristine alabaster of his skin that she took in with wide eyes, and the scent of his cologne, earthy and woodsy, making her think of the long-closed barbershop that her father had taken her into when she was a child and he needed a trim.

He withdrew, and Marinette's heart slammed into its highest gear as it struggled to make up for a seeming eternity of disuse.

“I really had a great time,” slow and halting, though Marinette hadn't the presence of mind to react in any way _after being kissed by her crush_ , he pressed a hand to her cheek and swirled his thumb over _the spot he had just graced with his lips!_

And there was a grin, opening up his features with a boyish earnestness that Marinette had only ever seen on small children and Chat Noir, with which he favoured both Marinette and Kagami in turn.

Marinette _meeped_ and fidgeted.

“With _both_ of you, Mari,” he affirmed, smile still firmly in place, before he swiveled around to jog towards his waiting driver and luxury automobile.

“See you in class, Mari,” he exclaimed, exuberance washing over what seemed to be an attempt at maintaining a controlled tone as Natalie stared at him from the back seat, jerking only slightly after an errant toss saw Adrien's bag land nearly in her lap.

“Kagami,” he continued, seemingly unaware that Natalie was fussing over his gym bag, rearranging it. “I'll text you tonight. Let me know, okay?”

Anything else that he might have had to say was swiftly cut off by his bodyguard's thick form and the slam of a car door.

The imposing man glanced over in Marinette's direction, nearly causing her to wither before she jerked back at the sensation of a firm hand falling on her shoulder.

Kagami stood next to her, chin upraised. Her back was rigid, and her grip comforting, though slight shudders caused the growing, inconsistent pressure on Marinette's shoulder to wax and wane as seconds ticked by without action or reaction from either her or the robust chauffeur.

Adrien's “Gorilla” merely stared back for a moment that dragged on, until he broke the strange contest by nodding and lumbered around to the other side of the vehicle.

Before ducking inside, he caught Marinette's eye, his hand resting atop the roof of the car, gripping the rim of the door. His dark blue eyes were devoid of any discernible emotion, and sweat pooled along Marinette's brow as she was, again, on the verge of swallowing her own throat for a very different reason.

For just a moment, his thumb flashed up and down. Then he was inside the vehicle and merging into traffic as the car departed.

“You know, Marinette-”

“Bwa!” Marinette screeched, leaping away from the girl at her side and tearing her shoulder from what had been a comforting grip, forgotten entirely. She froze in place, stuck standing on one foot with the other raised nearly to her knee, her hands before her as if warding off an attack.

“You're okay, Marinette.” Kagami merely smiled, raised a hand to placate her, and continued. “When we went on our double date to the ice rink, I thought that you were the girl that Adrien was talking about.”

“Uh-buh... whu?”

Yes. That was very effective. Well said, Marinette.

Kagami's car pulled up along the sidewalk behind Adrien's departing vehicle. The girl shaded her eyes from the mid-day sun, gaze flicking towards Marinette and away. Once. Twice. And she spoke.

“It was so obvious how he felt about you that I thought that he had confessed, and you turned him down.” She hissed slightly, rearranging the strap of her gym bag up along her shoulder. “All through our double date at the ice rink, I was _furious_ that you were stringing both him and Luka along, unable to make up your mind.”

Her black sedan had stopped at the curb, a thinly-built Asian man with an impeccably immaculate Gabriel suit from the latest collection, dark-green-nearly-black, emerging from the vehicle to open the rear passenger side door.

“What? I never-” Marinette began before halting at the other girl's _impossible_ affirmation of Adrien's interest, which was, as it turned out, for the best, as Kagami was far from done.

“I told him,” Kagami said, “that he should switch targets, as one might in fencing when unable to overcome an opponent.”

She wheeled towards Marinette, allowing her bag to drop to the ground. The valet fell upon it practically before it had time to collect dirt from the sidewalk and turned to stow it away in the rear of his car.

Resolute and stern-faced, Kagami pressed into Marinette's personal space, so close that the slightly smaller girl – who now felt positively diminutive in compare – could sense the radiating heat of her body as well as her focused gaze.

Her eyes were infinitely deep like Adrien's on that day in the rain when she had been able to look into his heart – to recognize the sensitive, needy child who wanted nothing more in that moment than to experience the simple intimacy of friendship, denied to him his entire life.

Marinette didn't see a desire for the simple intimacy of friendship in Kagami's eyes.

Two lighting fast motions, punctuated and precise like a carefully-timed feint and thrust of a rapier, followed before Marinette could process the movements or react, even instinctively.

The fencer glanced over Marinette's shoulder towards the valet, fumbling for just a moment to fit her bag into the trunk of their vehicle and metaphorically juggling the spare tire, a socket wrench kit, some window washer fluid, and a medical kit in order to make room.

Then, Kagami darted forward, ducking around Marinette's nonexistent defences to plant a surprisingly soft kiss on the other girl's cheek, the one not graced by Adrien himself.

Her lips were cracked and dry – she needed chapstick – and the brush was feathery and almost tentative for a single, lingering moment during which a thick warmth bubbled up inside Marinette's belly and she sucked down a sudden breath.

Pulling back and moving to a respectable distance, though all the practised decorum in the world couldn't completely obliterate her earnest smile, Kagami nodded.

“I was wrong about a great many things,” she said with a slow shake of her head and a creeping, abashed flush. “For instance, life isn't a fencing match.”

“W-what?” Marinette stuttered in reply, mouth slack and flapping slighting, out of her control. Did Kagami happen to connect everything to fencing the way that Chat Noir did with cat puns? At least she varied it up with a myriad of baking references and allusions to sewing.

Which was really not the point. Was Kagami bi? Lesbian and only just realizing it? That innocuous kiss, the sensation of which lingered and on Marinette's tingling cheek, resonated with feelings that were far less platonic.

_Oh, God! Did I just steal Adrien's girlfriend?But she's way too pretty to be interested in me, and I love Adrien, and I don't like girls - not that I'm bigoted! Does that make me bigoted because it was always Adrien for me and I've only ever looked at one other guy aside from that silly crush on Jagged when I was twelve and he was way too old for me, so I just never thought of another girl that way and-_

“In fencing, you can only aim for one target at a time,” Kagami interrupted. There was a thin waver in her voice as she turned. The soft light from the sun slung low in the sky, reaching its nadir and disappearing below the line of buildings, caused her skin to glow warmly.

Identification of the broad delineations between various athletic competitions and their suitability as metaphors for life did not seem particularly relevant to Marinette at this moment.

“And fencing is all about individual performance.” Kagami straightened with something akin to pride before relaxing her stance. “But I've come to realize that life – life can be a team sport.”

A deferential nod towards Marinette, and a further softening of her voice set that thick, pooling heat in Marinette's belly churning and the most delightful way.

“If _you_ want it to be,” she finished in a whisper, eyes again turning to her valet for a moment, before she leaned forward to grace Marinette's bicep with a single respectful tap.

“I-I don't understand,” Marinette began. Unfathomable possibilities swirled, taunting her with alternatives that she had suppressed, convincing herself that they were irrational fantasies. They blurred and mingled with those that she had never considered – never realized.

“I told you, Marinette,” Kagami said with an affirming nod. “When I want something, I don't hesitate.”

With that, a practised stoic expression darkened Kagami's features once more, dropping into place like a shutter, as she turned to her waiting valet who was just now closing the trunk to their vehicle before moving to the rear passenger-side door, gazing on them with indifference. On reaching the door, which her driver, stiff and proper, opened for her, the girl paused.

“Thank you for judging my fencing match with Adrien, Marinette,” Kagami said, her tone cool and distant.

There was a slight quirk to her valet's lip as Kagami settled inside the vehicle

While the chauffeur made his way around the front of the car, pausing to allow traffic to pass him by before entering the driver's door, the tinted passenger side window rolled downwards.

“We greatly appreciate your assistance in this matter,” Kagami intoned over the window's lip, “and would be grateful if you could observe our next match as well.”

And then, after a quick glance towards the front compartment of the car, presumably directed at the driver, settling into place as the car grumbled to life, she favoured Marinette with a wink and the most fetchingly awkward smile that the girl had seen since that rainy day when Adrien had offered her his umbrella.

At that, the car pulled out into Parisian traffic, leaving Marinette to stare after it, mute and stock still, watching as it swerved around the corner at the end of the block.

Welling up underneath the numb shock, was that giggly feeling that she shared with Alya whenever they used to fantasize about and plot out wedding days and kids and grandiose shows of affection, professions of love from Adrien, and first real kisses.

_Oh..._

“Crap.”

Somewhere in her purse, swimming in cookie crumbs, stomach distended, a tiny goddess of creation laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the last horse crosses the finish-line. 
> 
> But there are three races in the Triple Crown. Where will she place on her third (first?) date? We may find out in another one-off. 
> 
> Did anyone pick up on the fact that Kagami's "spare uniform" was, in fact, new? Marinette did. She may be oblivious when it comes to relationship, but the girl knows clothing.
> 
> Please let me know what you enjoyed, what you didn't, or if you feel that these three are as wonderful together as I do.


	3. The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After two "dates," Kagami and Adrien have made clear their intentions towards one-another and Marinette. Now, there's nothing left to do but wait for her to make her decision. 
> 
> Adrien, excitable, love-sick kitten that he is, is not one for patience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The waiting is the hardest part  
> Every day you get one more yard  
> You take it on faith, you take it to the heart  
> The waiting is the hardest part  
> Yeah, the waiting is the hardest part  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg

Adrien's jaw twitched lightly, eager, perfectly smooth model hands playing with the straps of his gym bag. Even now as he sat in the back seat of his father's car before the Agreste estate, his lips still sparked with the memory of Marinette's soft cheek and warmth still trailed like impossibly languid electricity through his limbs at Kagami's expectant smile.

There had been so much hope there. It had rung out in her voice, crystalline and clear, each time they discussed Kagami's plan for their "date," his intestines twisting around themselves in serpentine coils of mingled giddiness and apprehension.

"Are you listening, Adrien?" Nathalie poked her glasses into place with a forefinger, long creases spider-webbing out around her eyes as her lips folded into a thin, prim line. The tablet from which she had begun to read during the ride home from his "date" with Kagami and Marinette now lay by her side.

Yes and no.

Adrien settled his gym bag in his lap.

Extensive practice permitted him to let his mind to wander when listening to Nathalie, providing some escape from her typical drone. He had the ability to compartmentalize.

"Dinner at 18:00," he began, rifling through the nearly subconscious mental catalogue. The bag under his fingertips rumpled further with an increasingly-tight squeeze.

"I have an hour of piano practice, an hour to review my Chinese vocabulary and verb forms, and an hour for homework before a 22:00 bedtime because father wants to have breakfast at 6:00 promptly."

Adrien was under no illusions regarding the odds of his father actually making it to that scheduled meeting.

For a man as obsessed with precision and punctuality, going so far as to cancel models' contracts if they were mere minutes late to photo-shoots or release designers who had failed to meet his exacting standards by their deadlines, regardless of any legitimate explanations involving family crises or supply chain issues over which they had no control, Gabriel Agreste never cared about his responsibilities or others' time.

"The photo-shoot that was scheduled for the twelfth has been pushed to the nineteenth due to the weather forecast," Adrien droned right back at her. "So we'll be prepping on the seventeenth with a new hair cut."

Natalie cleared her throat and turned to review her tablet once again.

After a moment, she spoke, "Quite right, Adrien. Your attention is appreciated. You may go."

Adrien needed nothing more than that as he burst from the automobile and hurdled the steps that led to the front door of the Agreste mansion.

No doubt both his father and Nathalie, had she not been left in the car, her eyebrow raised coolly at his exuberance, would have been appalled at his emotionalism.

And he couldn't bring himself to care.

The car ride had been torture; every hyper-sensitive nerve and sinew in his body tingled and ached with what had quickly become a _need_ to message Kagami.

She had wanted to speak to Marinette alone, much as Adrien had protested in light of the fact that they needed to have a conversation together if they had any hope of, well, being together, but Kagami had insisted that she and Marinette had to address matters without him before they did so.

 _Kagami_ had helped him realize that Marinette – sweet, clumsy, caring Marinette – had wormed her way into his heart in a way that was soft and gentle and warm and brilliant and unassuming just like her. _Kagami_ had been bold enough to suggest that they both contemplate a "non-standard" relationship – once she had told him what that actually _was_ and they had both built on her already-extensive research into the matter.

It only seemed fair that he let her have her way.

And Adrien, as Plagg reminded him at every opportunity, was well and truly _whipped_ by whatever girl caught his fancy, from Ladybug to Kagami to "Ryuuko" to Marinette.

It was a good thing that all of the girls that he fell for would never dream of taking advantage of it for anything other than gentle ribbing.

They were all too good for it.

And for him.

Adrien skidded to a stop inside of his room, throwing his bag down at the side of the door. His hand rose to the back of his neck, which he squeezed almost to the point of pain.

Was that his father talking?

Sometimes, it became difficult for him to tell when his thoughts took on the tenor of Gabriel Agreste's derisive complaints regarding his hair, his posture, his manners, and his fencing stance – not that the man had ever seen Adrien compete in person; he had his 1080p tablet camera and that was enough to dismiss and deride.

Anticipation turned his fingers into a fumbling mess as he dove into his bag to retrieve his phone, ignoring the pitch-black Kwami that was happily buried inside the folds of his sweat-soaked gym equipment and fencing gear, huffing deeply as if he was trying to hyperventilate.

"Gross, Plagg," he muttered as he withdrew his cell phone and swiped in his pattern code in one fluid motion. The notification screen indicated that his professional email address had received two messages from Natalie, but no texts had arrived from either Marinette or Kagami. He deflated slightly.

"You just don't appreciate the finer things in life, Kid," Plagg drawled as he rose from his happy little haven of stench inside the bag.

Adrien scowled as he took a whiff and realized that some of the odour had transferred to the hand that had retrieved his cell phone.

"You're disgusting, you know that?"

"Well, good thing I don't need it anymore, so you're welcome to your sweaty bag." The Kwami flitted off towards the mini refrigerator tucked into the corner of the room. A tiny paw rose to tap at its chrome surface. "Cheese me."

And "cheese him" Adrien did, allowing the Kwami to lug a quarter wheel of Camembert cheese into the corner of the room. Once there, he began muttering what Adrien believed, if he strained his still slightly-enhanced hearing, were a string of sweet-nothings and promises to "be gentle," laying his tiny form over the massive wedge and reaching out to the uttermost, stroking the edges of its bloomy rind.

...Adrien really didn't need to see any more of that.

Instead, after retreating to his bathroom to wash his hands, he flopped over to his bed, staring at the distant, immaculately white ceiling.

Normally, he would have gone to his computer, eager to review Ladybug videos or check Alya's Ladyblog for new updates, speculations, or fan-theories that were often as inventive and amusing as they were abjectly incorrect. In recent weeks, though, the Ladyblog had lost some of its lustre. The realization that its chief journalist would post an interview with Lila and embrace her assertions as fact threw everything that it had ever produced into question.

And, if he had to admit it to himself, Ladybug just wasn't able to enthrall him as she once did. Oh, she was brilliant and beautiful, sharp and kind, indulgent without putting up with his crap, but...

Kagami peered out at him through the tight mesh-work of her fencing cage. That wicked, triumphant smirk that she allowed herself to reveal behind a mask or when in private with him and now, he realized, with Mari, grew even wider as she ducked around one of his thrusts and caught him in the belly with the tip of her epee because she was so much better at fighting in close than him.

Marinette stuttered and stumbled as he leaned into her space to ask her about the myriad pictures of him that lined her bedroom walls. Her squeaky little voice and paralyzed, mousy form called to some feline instinct that had him caught in stupefied indecision between protectiveness and predatory hunger that urged him to tease her. That feeling of warmth when their fingers brushed as she handed him her – now his – lucky charm; the same one that was now nestled in his pocket. The mingled awe as she kicked his butt at Mecha Strike during their tournament preparations. The graceful curve of her neck, framed by her loosed hair.

The sound of both girls' laughter, joining with his, as they teased each other while enjoying the ice-cream they shared _together_ because Kagami hadn't hesitated.

That was how you thought about "just a friend," right?

 _Dolt_.

Which was exactly what Kagami had called him when they discussed his relationship with Marinette.

He shifted over to his side with a disgusted grunt. The fluffy billows of his comforter met his nose, tickling his nostrils. A further groan was swallowed up by his mattress.

This was hell.

And not just because Plagg was in the corner, alternating between stuffing wads of stinky cheese down his gullet and, from the sound of things, making out with whatever remained.

Deciding that the least that he could do was beat his figurative head against some Mandarin homework, he sloughed off his bed and strode over to his computer. Settling in front of his massive and no-doubt exorbitantly expensive PC did offer one major benefit: though his stomach still churned at the wretched odour of Camembert, he could slip on his equally high-quality headphones to block out Plagg's ... moans?

Man lived by small mercies.

It proved difficult for him to make any headway on his Mandarin verb conjugations. His mind kept drifting away from agreement issues to fixate on Marinette and the fluttery sensation in his heart and belly that had nothing to do with Plagg's dinner.

Kagami left him in that state for only a few frustrated minutes. Just as he was about to smack his face into his desk in frustration at the delay and his inability to even _try_ to get work done, the messenger icon on his desktop lit up. In a heated fumble, he tossed his stylus away with a little too much force. It sailed into the corner of his room, forgotten, as he pulled up his video chat program.

The window opened to reveal the spartan backdrop of Kagami's room, personalized with nothing more than a few fencing trophies, at least insofar as he could see. Taking up most of the screen was the girl herself, repositioning herself in her computer chair. A faint quirk to her lips had that omnipresent tingling ramping up to a hum, which was reminiscent of what he imagined getting slightly, well, "buzzed" on alcohol would actually feel like.

Marinette might have said yes! If she did, then he might finally be able to core out that little pit of guilt that he tried to ignore, because he felt something for someone other than his girlfriend.

"How did it go?" he exclaimed without preamble, hands worrying together just below his webcam's field of view, eyes blown open and wide. He must have been coming across like an impetuous child, which was kind of what he was sometimes, really. "What did she say?"

"You appear slightly eager, Adrien," Kagami said with a teasing glint in her eye that was only somewhat reminiscent of Ladybug – not that Adrien was comparing them directly; it was simply clear that he had a "type." From off-screen, she raised a steaming china cup into view of the camera. "Perhaps you should have a soothing cup of tea in order to settle down before we speak."

"Kagami," Adrien drew out the word in a whine. "You can't expect me not to be curious after you insisted on speaking with Mari alone."

"Ah, yes. I meant to talk to you regarding that." Fingers steepled in front of her face as she glowered at the camera in a way that had him grinning despite himself. It was like ... like he was Chat Noir and he could _be_ teased. "Calling her 'Mari.' Should I be feeling jealous?"

"I think that I'm the one who should be jealous, 'Gami. You got to spend twice as much time with her today than I did, after all."

"Well, hopefully we'll not have cause to be jealous of each other in the future."

"Because?" he pressed.

All the teasing half-flirtatiousness bled out of her as she deflated. "I'm sorry, Adrien. The truth is that I was unable to extract her opinion on the matter. She knows how we feel and perhaps it was cowardly, but I left it at that."

Frustrating though that might have been, he couldn't fault her for giving Marinette the space that she needed to think about her own sexuality. In a way, it was better than he feared; worse than he hoped. If Kagami had spoken to her about their feelings, that meant that she felt that there was a chance.

"That wasn't the wrong choice," Adrien tried to placate his actual girlfriend regarding ... their potential girlfriend. Wow. Still a weird thought. "She deserves to have time to think about this. I certainly needed it."

"Yes," Kagami hummed from the other side of the city. "It did take you some time to pick your jaw up off the floor."

"Speaking of which, one of these days." He smirked and pitched his voice lower into as close to a seductive purr as he could manage, which, given the deep reverberation inside his chest he thought was quite impressive indeed. "I'm going to get you back for that 'between the two of us' comment'."

"Do you really think it wise to complete with me in yet another arena?" Leaning back in her chair she huffed derisively. "I would think that you would do well to simply accept the loss."

"Would you be dating me if I was the type of guy who'd just take the loss?"

"No, I suppose not. Beating you is half the fun of our relationship."

"And losing to me is the other half?" Adrien added with a smirk, pressing close to the screen.

That fierce little competitive gleam in her eyes as she straightened up in her chair attested to at least one of the things that had made him fall in love with her. Kind though she could be at times, she was fire to Marinette's soothing gentleness.

"If that's what you need to tell yourself, Agreste-dono."

"Do-" He paused to mull over the question and worry his hands together, a strange gummy feeling in his mouth tangling up the question because he both needed, and feared, to hear the answer. "Do you think that she'll say yes?"

"She clearly has feelings for you, and... she seemed attracted to me, as I thought."

"Well, that's good, I guess."

"But, Adrien," she began hesitantly, and that was like a blow to Adrien's heart because she should never be hesitant. It wasn't _her_. "It is possible that she may only be interested in _you_ now that you've finally figured out that you like her."

"Maybe, but we're a package deal, right?" he asked, suddenly uncertain about that and what Kagami might be implying. "That's what we decided."

"Decisions can change, Adrien. We choose how we want to be." A scoffing laugh covered a sideways glace away from the screen. She was deflecting; skirting something and that bubbling tingling feeling suddenly amplified until his heart felt like it was hooked to a TENS therapy unit that had been turned up too high. "It almost feels like I'm the third wheel here. You both are so utterly oblivious that it seems that you were made for one-another."

There it was. Underneath the smirk and the flippancy and even the genuine anxiety that she strove so hard to conceal even from him regarding Marinette's potential response.

"Kagami," he began and leaned into the camera, double-checking his appearance in the video feed at the top right-hand corner of his screen to make certain that he was still in the frame while giving Kagami the best possible view of his eyes. "You're not. I chose to be with you; not Marinette. I won't deny how I feel about her, but whatever she decides, I _chose_ you."

"I should hope that we're past the denial stage, at least," she scoffed. "How long did I have to beat you over the head with it for you to figure it out?"

"I lost consciousness after the first hour," Adrien granted with a deferential nod, "but you're deflecting."

"Oh? You think that you know me so well, do you?"

"I know a thing or two about how you parry, yes," he added with a wink to goad her.

It was actually painful to watch Kagami worrying her hands along the cooling cup of tea as she seemed to mull over her reply. A quick riposte and counter was expected; not this descent into lingering silence.

"Did you really choose me?" she finally blurted out in a rush, eyes flashing up towards the screen to look at him and then getting stuck, it seemed, in his eyes. "You didn't really _make_ a choice, as you were unaware that you even had one when you agreed to go out with me."

"Hey, come on. I should be asking you that. It's more likely that the two of you are going to run off together without me. I mean, who _wouldn't_ pick you over me?"

Kagami glanced upwards, brow pinching together. The hand holding her small china cup, steam licking upwards from the rim, entered into the frame once again. She brought it to her lips and took a long, drawn-out sip before setting it down again.

"We're a horrible mess, aren't we?"

"What?"

"Because we are both thinking exactly the same thing," she explained. "Even though we both talked about this beforehand, neither of us really believes that it will work. After all, why would she really want ' _me_ '?"

True, and characteristically blunt in a way that Adrien could never allow himself to be. He shifted in his chair. Ladybug merchandise stared at him from the corner of the room, the small shelving unit packed with masks, photos, a limited edition Ladybug action figure and other flotsam having diminished as he packed away some of his collection – some of his hopes.

But that was okay. New hopes could replace them.

"I don't think that's entirely true."

"Oh?" She inquired with mock flippancy, returning to her tea in a surprisingly dainty motion.

"No." Adrien propped his elbows on the desk in front of his keyboard and rested his chin in both of his hands, hoping that his expression conveyed the sincerity that he felt, untarnished by any affectations that he had picked up from his career as a model.

"You're a _beautiful_ mess, Kagami, and I love you," he finished softly.

Kagami choked on another mouthful of tea, whether from shock or muffled laughter, he could not tell. The cup in her hands wobbled, the hot liquid nearly sloshing out over her entire workspace. As she coughed to clear her airway, she set the cup down beside her once again.

"T-that was a very effective flirt," she said between attempts to clear her throat.

 _Got her_. It had the benefit of being true, of course. Oh, it was perfect when he got in that little precise strike when she least expected it because she, like him, wasn't told often enough that she was loved.

"Well, you'll just have to get used to it because I'm not going to stop any time soon." His shoulders rolled in a shrug which, hopefully, was not reminiscent of a cat arching his back. A keen eye and cleverness could rumble him if ever she spent time with Chat Noir. "Whatever Marinette decides."

Something like... honest shame darkened her eyes – eyes that she couldn't even seem to raise to meet his.

"I am afraid, Adrien," she said with a scowl.

"I know," Adrien granted, folding his hands and sagging. "So am I."

"I don't think..." She paused and seemed to think about the matter for a moment, as if she didn't know what she thought or felt.

"You don't think that you should be."

Her entire body, which had been falling limp, jerked upwards, her eyes fixating on him and face contorting into an expression of unbridled shock. That look persisted for several long, distinctly uncomfortable moments that had Adrien clenching and unclenching his fists under his desk.

"No," she said at last. "I shouldn't be afraid that she won't feel the same way. Not like this."

"And you shouldn't be afraid because you just _shouldn't_ be afraid."

"No," she granted uncertainly, looking off at something in the distance – the wall, he knew from having visited her room, against which her many trophies sat in a display case. "It's not... _right_ for me to be afraid of anything."

"You know, my father – he lost control. Life took my- my mother..." He cleared his throat lightly and turned away from the screen for a moment to stare and his Kwami. Plagg now slept curled up on Adrien's pillow, his little legs and paws twitching in a dream. Great. Now his pillow and hair would reek of Camembert. For whatever reason, his resentment was halfhearted at best.

"And because he couldn't control that, something... went wrong, and he started to feel like he had to control everything and everyone. If he stopped even for a moment then... I don't know."

"Adrien..."

"What I'm saying, Kagami," he interrupted in a rush because he simply had to get it out; both of them had let it go unspoken, unacknowledged for far too long. "Is that my father is more afraid than anyone I know. I saw it when I told him that it would be okay if he started to... feel things for Nathalie, and I realized why he-he _needed_ to be in control. He _feels_ more than anyone I know, and that's why he tells me that I can't... I don't know if that makes any sense."

It was a jumble. Half-coherent. When it came to their parents, he was certain that they both "knew" it, but actually _knowing_ and molding the whirl of fears and intuitions into something solid was completely different.

On the other side of the city, and his computer screen, Kagami ducked down out of range of the camera for a moment. There was a slight shuffling and scraping as Adrien waited for her, squeezing his blunted, manicured nails into his palm, and wishing that he could peer into that room and her mind alike – to know what she was doing and what she was thinking.

Kagami emerged, having addressed whatever it was that had consumed her attention, though she still had that glassy faraway look in her eyes.

Adrien was a sweet boy; he had thought himself an "adventurer" while exploring his home as a child, but the truth was that he had always been soft, running back to his mother whenever the shadows loomed too ominously. Gentle deference was both his natural inclination and a survival mechanism in these recent years.

Looking into his girlfriend's watery eyes, he'd never wanted to hurt someone so badly as he did Tomoe Tsurugi at that moment.

"A great deal, really," she muttered hoarsely as if, once again, ashamed by the admission and the tone of voice.

"I- I don't want to be ashamed of how I feel any more. So, let's be a mess together, and if Marinette wants to be a part of that – however we figure all this out – that's her choice."

"Agreste-dono," Kagami began, fingers to her jawline, stroking in mock awe and pensiveness because she was trying to deflect again, if Adrien knew anything about her attempts to 'parry,' this time away from the embarrassment that was still plain due to her light flush, "when did you get so wise?"

"I'm studying under an ancient deity," he offered flippantly.

"My compliments to him, then. He is clearly a noble and honoured sensei."

There was precious little for them to say after that point, and though Kagami made a little jibe about not minding her if he wanted to slip into something more comfortable that had her grinning at Adrien's resulting blush because ... because he knew that she couldn't be serious, she let him go without much complaint.

Yet he just couldn't get comfy or do anything productive, try as he might. Finally, he gave up and flopped onto his bed, tossing himself into different positions and rearranging and beating his pillows. His current predicament had nothing to do with the lingering slight ... discomfort at Kagami's teasing.

Curiosity itched under his skin like little flaming ants crawling around on his arms, legs, and heart. It was as if he'd been dumped in pigeon feathers, and he scraped his head across the all-too-soft fabric of his comforter in an effort to get out the stinging, longing feeling. He could really go for a good head-scratch, something that Plagg had assured him was _not_ a consequence of his miraculous but his upbringing at the hands of, well, something that Adrien didn't feel capable of repeating, in part because there were swear words from languages that he didn't think existed any longer.

He was touch-starved.

But there was no relief to be had.

All that he could do was wait for Marinette to make up her mind – to think through her feelings and strive to be as patient with her as Kagami had been with him.

Adrien was terrible at being patient.

The incessant scratching moved up to his head as he tried to soothe the itchiness, but digging his fingernails into his scalp only made it worse.

"Ugh!" he spat into his pillow.

Why was there nothing that he could do? This was just beneath him! He was a super-hero for crying... out... loud.

But that was the thing, wasn't it?

Scooting to the edge of the bed, he gazed over at Plagg, taking in the sight of his contented Kwami, rubbing his belly and flicking his tongue out to wet his paw so that he could lave it over a twitching ear.

"Plagg?"

The little Kwami just rolled his eyes and then went back to transferring the stink of Camembert from his foul mouth – in more ways than one – to the top of his head, which was probably what he was trying to do anyways.

Fine.

"Claws Out!"

With a screech and a flail, Plagg tumbled through the air, body contracting into something akin to a streak of black energy as he was dragged into Adrien's gleaming sliver ring that metamorphosed into the distinctive ebony band, capped with a toxic green paw print, that adorned the finger of Chat Noir, the eminently suave and gentlemanly Parisian super-hero.

There was an hour until dinner, which was more than enough time for his purposes.

Adrien Agreste may not have been able treat this itch, but Chat Noir could find a fit balm for his condition. After all, Chat knew of Marinette's once-unrequited crush, assuming that Kagami was right about the identity of the "mystery prince" that had caught the baker's eye.

It was time for him to check up on the girl who had offered him a kind ear after Ladybug had "stood him up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Having left this work lay fallow for a while, I've been thinking about expanding on it, as I had mentioned in the first chapter of its sequel, in order to explore the actual "polyamory negotiation" that has to take place, present some necessary character growth, and explore Marinette's bisexual awakening. 
> 
> A sequel that handled the interim was planned, but it was too tightly yoked to this story for it to make sense as a separate work. 
> 
> So here we go.


	4. Adrien Agreste: Cotton Candy Burrito

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat Noir visits Marinette, who is coming to terms with the fact that she finds another girl attractive.
> 
> He may be his usual dopey, love-struck self, but he knows something about giving up on your dreams.

While Chat Noir would have liked to believe that he moved like a liquid shadow even in the late afternoon light, the reality, as would be obvious to to anyone watching him as he passed, was that he flopped and twisted through the air with each of his baton strokes, scampering over rooftops on all fours and missing more than a few of his intended landings while he cavorted in an eager scramble towards the _Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie._

As he clambered over the the last building and dropped to his belly to shimmy towards the edge of the roof, he knew that had to be clandestine about his surveillance, and all his feline subtly and grace was used to edge his way towards the tiny lip of the roof to poke his kitty ears and green eyes out and survey the situation like a soldier observing an enemy encampment. Marinette's balcony and attic room emerged into view.

Target acquired.

Marinette stood, slumped against the railing of her balcony, and his keen eyes allowed him to worry over the vacant expression on her face as she chewed on her lower lip.

Obviously, Marinette was planning on staying in for the evening, having already changed for bed before dinner. She stood on her rooftop, clad in her perfectly adorable but dangerously tight pink sleep pants, and white, pink polka dotted tanktop, its thin black straps pressing into her slender shoulders and highlighting the curve of her throat and the smooth, pale expanse of her neck.

And now she was staring right back at him, arms folded up like a preying mantis, hands steepled in front of her face as she leaned against her balcony railing.

“Anything that I can help the great and illustrious hero of Paris with today?” she shouted over the street, causing several pedestrians to look up at what they must have assumed was a crazy person.

A little snort of laughter escaped him, contorting Chat's face like a sneeze, because that was the kind of bold attitude, much like a snarkier version of Kagami's, that made Marinette _Marinette_ , at least when she wasn't stumbling all over herself in a blushing fluster, which, as Kagami had pointed out to him, was just as adorable and the exaggerated mannerisms kind of made her look like a clumsy anime love interest...

Flicking his baton into a staff, he set it at his feet and burst off the roof into a clean and easy flip, bridging the gap between them to land comfortably at Marinette's side, capping it off with a deep bow.

“You've got it all wrong, princess,” he said, fist clenched to his heart, the thick belt-tail behind him flicking and swaying in amusement that he couldn't restrain because the darn thing had a mind of its own. “This humble knight is at _your_ service, certainly.”

Marinette did not appear impressed.

“Uh-ha,” she offered noncommittally with an eye-roll so hard that it nearly looked like the whites of her eyes were going to spin right out of her head, “and to what do I owe the honor?”

“Honestly, I was just passing through and, well-” A hand pressed to the back of his head and he scratched at it absently. “You looked a little lost in thought. As a hero of Paris, I guess I just wanted to check in.”

“Can't have people getting akumatized under your watch, right?” she sighed.

Had – had they actually done something that might ger her akumatized? Had they completely misjudged? How could he have-

Her weird, toothy smile and a frantic gesture with her hands set his mind at ease, and let him relax his grip on the baton that he realized he was nearly on the verge of snapping in his hands.

“No- no. I'm just joking, Chat! Nothing's really wrong,” she assured in a slight rush, likely seeing his slack-jawed expression.

“Don't _scare_ me like that, princess,” Chat groused.

“Sorry. I didn't think that you'd take it so seriously.”

If he hadn't been the possible cause of her distress, he probably wouldn't.

“No worries, little lady.” His chest puffed as he tapped his baton to the padded armour molded skin-tight to his pecs... which he might have been flexing just a little bit. “This cat's made of _sterner_ stuff than to be thrown off by that.”

“Well,” she hummed in thought, pupils dilating to focus on him in a sidelong glare that she might offer to a passerby with dubious fashion sense whose outfit she was tearing down to the threads and stitches in her mind, “you are a bit of a butt.”

“Hey!” he exclaimed as if truly incensed, drawing on his acting experience to throw a flanging pubescent crackle into his complaint, just for good measure. “That's the thanks I get for being worried about a civilian in distress.”

“I'm not distressed, Chat. I'm just...” Splotchy flecks of colour marred her complexion with uneven shades of pink and white, the angle of the light throwing them into greater contrast as her upper body plunged down to the railing, head cradled on folded arms..

“You don't have to talk about whatever it is that's got you feeling a little down, but... I don't know. We kind of helped each other last time something was on our minds, right? When we chatted about Ladybug and your mystery prince?”

“Yeah,” she agreed, fiddling with her pigtails and trying to straighten out a handful of hairs that had pulled loose during her laughing fit. ”That did help, actually.”

“So, is it... is it about your prince again?” Chat asked, leaning back against the railing, resting his weight on his elbows. “Did he turn out to be a Hans?”

“A what?”

“You know, from _Frozen_? Random inexplicable heel turn?”

“Oh. Him, a heel?” she scoffed.”Never. He's too ... too perfectly sweet and caring. He might be ... he might be wrong about things sometimes, but no one could put up with ... some of the people he has in his life, like these two girls at our school who are hanging off him constantly even though he hates it, if that wasn't who he really was.”

Lila and Chloe, perhaps - ugly, perfectly manicured nails biting into his arms as decorum and expectation had him laughing and smiling even as they slimed into him, their presence hot and stomach churning like the atmosphere in a muggy gym that left him caked with sweat, and dirt, and other peoples' body odour.

That kind of sensation was so strange when he usually couldn't get enough hugs from Nino or cuddles from Kagami.

"No,” she continued absently, turning over to her deck chair to retrieve a thermos and pour out a cap-full of – he gave a clandestine sniff – hot cocoa and take a thoughtful sip. ”It's not... well. It is about him. I got confessed to, today."

"Congratulations, princess,” he offered, reaching out a clawed hand to give her a little bump to her shoulder. “Someone must have good taste."

She laughed, mirthless and sharp, a little pained and frantic, his cat ears flicking up and rotating to parse the varied intonations. The cup was unsteady in her hands. "Yeah. She really does, but not because she confessed to me, that's for sure."

"Nonsense, princess,” he corrected in a huff. “I'm sure that she sees how clever and brave you are."

Her brow quirked as she gave him a judgmental once-over, shifting the steaming cup of cocoa to her left hand, and then leaned in to poke his cheek, as if testing whether he was made of flesh and blood, the soft lingering remnants of boyish pudge being pressed up over the edge of his mask.

"You're not going to confess to me, too, are you?” she asked with a grimace that was part playful and part wary. “Because then I'll know that one of Hawkmoth's akuma or an amok is behind this."

"Heaven _forfend_!” he exclaimed, angling to butt his head against the hand she still held up to his head, now trying to take the temperature of his forehead. “This cat is spoken for."

"Right,” she drawled, nearly chugging the rest of her cocoa. “ _Ladybug_."

"Eh.” Admitting to her that his affections had shifted – or been forced to shift – away from Ladybug, even though he'd already done so to the very girl he was speaking to, left him feeling like he did in those photoshoots that his father said produced pictures that were not in keeping with the company's image.

“No actually."

"What?" The slight crinkling of her nose, as if she'd gotten a whiff of something foul, left him grinning with the desire to boop it, it was so cute. A little trickle of cocoa dribble over her lip.

Unbidden, a butt-wiggle had his hips shaking until he realized what he was doing and tamped down on the instinct.

She wiped her lip.

"But- you've been in love with Ladybug for – for forever!" she said, staggering in shock.

"Yeah,” he offered with a sigh, shifting his baton between his hands, and strange as it was, a great stab of hot shame had him flinching away from her wide-eyed expression. “But she doesn't feel the same way, and... I think that I'm okay with that."

"So, that's it. You've ... given up on her." It almost sounded as if she was disappointed as she focused on screwing closed her thermos and then stared at it. That reaction made no sense. She never seemed to do anything more than tolerate Alya's 'shipping' talk, much as he and the blogger had gushed over LadyNoir.

And of _course_ he managed to bungle the conversation so badly that they were now talking about his love-life rather than satisfying the curiosity he had regarding _hers_. He nearly smacked himself in the face with his baton, and might just have done it if Marinette wasn't standing right there.

"I – I don't know if that's the right way to put it."

"Oh? Then how _would_ you put it, kitty?" Her hands were to her hips, a light forward roll of her shoulders pressing her chest together, and he had to struggled to keep his eyes on her face.

Cat scratch that. Staring into those wide, vibrant and defiant blue eyes? The only thing that he had to struggle with was the real danger of losing himself in them.

Sap.

Not that he didn't revel it in.

"I love Ladybug and I love ... my girlfriend,” he began. “I just choose to be with her – no, that's not right. It's not a choice because Ladybug isn't a choice.... maybe, I choose to focus on someone I love who loves me back."

"And how is that going?" she asked with a note of genuine intrigue.

"It... it's good. No. It's great!" he said, arms thrown out to the side as if he was bursting apart. Going by the way that she put a hand to her jaw and scratched just under her ear absently, his exuberance seemed to leave her dumbfounded. "It's not what I thought would happen, but- but it's really good!"

"That's wonderful. I'm happy for you, Chat," she said, yet the way that her gaze flitted away from him and she began to scan the skyline beyond her balcony made it seem quite the opposite.

Of _course_.

Wincing, he clapped his arms behind his back, squeezing his own wrist painfully tight, and began to pace the balcony while she looked out to the cityscape. As he took in the sight of her, loosing her hair ties and untangling her pigtails to set her locks streaming in the slight breeze, he only hoped that he'd actually made it easier on her.

Just like he'd had to give up on Ladybug, she had to give up on Chat Noir.

"But what about you?" A little leap brought him to the balustrade of Marinette's balcony. She giggled when he began to sway back and forth, feigning a fall on a tight-rope walk. It was a delight as the ugly, infected tension again bled away like puss from a lanced boil.

"What do you mean, you silly cat?" Marinette laughed, though she was eyeing him carefully.

She was watching to see if he was going to fall, ready to intervene.

She was looking out for him.

At that moment, as he steadied himself and bent down into a crouch next to her, still on the railing, he was grateful that the green-hued lenses of his mask would hide his misting eyes.

"Well, you said that a girl confessed to you today. How do you – uh... feel about that?"

"Honestly?” Mulling over her response took her a few tense moments, during which her mouth ranged through a series of indescribable little twitches, shifting from frown to smile to quirk and back in rapid succession. “I don't know? See, this girl was ... she's actually really ... nice, tough but, like, awkwardly charming and self-sacrificing. You know that guy that I told you about?"

"Your sweet prince?"

"Oh, he's sweeter than a ... a cotton candy burrito.” The figure of speech left her in a rush as she grinned and grimaced, hands clenching and unclenching with increasing speed. “But not, like disgusting like that - like a cotton candy burrito that was great and made by the finest confectioners but well-balanced but also kind of funny and sometimes just a little silly like- like-"

"Like a cotton candy burrito?" Chat supplied, plopping his butt onto the railing of her balcony in order to take a seat in front of her.

"Yeah," she sighed dreamily and deflated at once. Her face was open and flushed, caressed by the last vestiges of sunlight.

"And what about mister 'cotton candy burrito?'" He sort of liked being a cotton candy burrito.

"Oh. Uh. I guess that she and I were kind of ... rivals for him?"

If he needed any more confirmation than that, he was more of a dolt than Kagami and Plagg thought. She _did_ like him. But he had to be careful; suppress the urge to take a flying leap of the balcony and start whooping his way across Paris (as you do, if you're Adrien Agreste in a mask and leather cat-suit).

"So, she's interested in you now?"

"I- sort of? She's definitely interested in me, though I couldn't tell you why because – because they're perfect together and I'm just an ... ugly spastic dork compared to them."

"Marinette," Chat retorted harshly – more harshly, he realized, than she'd ever heard him in their few prior meetings and it caused her to jerk out of the beginning of what appeared to be a melancholic, rambling spiral. "You are a beautiful person, inside and out."

Google-eyed, she swallowed at that, as if gulping down an entire glass of milk in one go, and, with all the experience he had with Kagami, he wanted so badly to kiss those slightly-parted lips in that moment that he couldn't fathom how he had failed to realize his feelings for so long.

After a few seconds spent enjoying her stunned silence, he offered her a massive wink, and in response she huffed and tugged her hands free from his to smack him in the chest.

"Okay, there, Casanova-"

" _Cat_ sanova, please.”

She rolled her eyes again, because of course she would, and seeing this side of her, the one that she'd shown off so rarely to Adrien, had his heart racing. It was almost like teasing Ladybug, but ... but even better because Marinette liked 'him' back.

“Either way, back off there, kitty,” she chastised while pressing her hand to his shoulder and giving him a light shove that had him feigning a fall, arms flailing. “You've got a girlfriend, or so I'm told.”

“Just telling you the truth, princess. Don't sell yourself short.”

“Okay, okay.” She mimed a massive explosion with her hands, fingers twinkling as if scattering stardust. “So I'm this wonderful, beautiful, _magical_ princess.”

He nodded sagely, chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I'm glad that we agree on something.”

“But what do I _do_?”

A huff escaped his nose. That was really the rub, wasn't it? Palms itchy inside his gloves, he knew that he had to measure his words carefully.

“I take it that you didn't turn her down outright?" he asked tentatively, trying to get her to open up because he already had the answer to that.

"No. I couldn't just... shove her confession back in her face.”

“Do you... do you like girls?” he asked, gripping the balcony railing tight.

Her head titled to the sky. The clouds shifted and rolled with the heavier winds above them. A light twitching of her cheek coupled with fluttering eyes, something like rapid-eye-movement of a sleeping child, left him feeling slightly sick with anticipation.

“I... I don't know.”

She said it so helplessly. Lost. Like he'd been when Kagami had discussed 'non-standard relationships.' This was a bad idea. How had he not realized that he was the last person to help her with this? What did you say to someone who was... trying to figure that out and not be selfish about it when he was already involved?

“You know it's okay if you don't,” he assured hesitantly, pushing her back from the railing as he rose to stand before her, “or if you don't know... you know?”

A thousand Marinette-Multimouses gave him a mental slow clap.

Bravo Chat Noir. Really cementing that suave reputation.

But it made her snort, laugh lines spreading out around her clenching eyes.

“Yeah, Chat,” she huffed, hand to her mouth to hide the little, silly smile that he'd only caught a flash of when she first started to snark at him. “I think I follow you.”

He'd make an idiot out of himself twice a day everyday if it meant lifting Marinette's spirits like that, or getting Kagami to crack one of her increasingly-frequent natural smiles.

“So, do you want to talk about it or, uh, her?” he continued awkwardly once the pressure had deflated entirely, the air being let out of Marinette's lungs.

“I... Yeah.” There was a little frown of uncertainty, almost like the one he saw on her face whenever Lila began spinning a new web of increasingly ridiculous lies, and he could only dig his claws into the rail more tightly as he wondered what that meant.

“You said that she was, what,” he stumbled, “charming and self-sacrificing?”

Thank you Nathalie Sancour for the memory drills.

A nod and a faint smile had him relaxing, rising up to his full height which put her at nearly four inches shorter than him.

“Yeah,” she almost sighed and it was very nearly wistful. “She and I are interested in the same guy, and- and she actually held off for a long time for _me_. She told me that I was hesitating, and that she never does. That's one of the things that's so cool about her. She goes after what she wants without letting anything get in her way.”

“Sounds pretty forceful. I get that, I suppose – liking a girl who knows what she wants and is willing to do what it takes to get it.”

“But don't you get it?” she replied, face lighting up in that cute and enthusiastic way it did when she started talking about a new design. “Because we're friends, she _didn't_. She cared enough to give me a chance; I just never took it.”

Kagami had alluded to that, but the knowledge that Marinette appreciated it properly only made her all the more special. His 'Gami deserved recognition for who she was, how she felt, and not her skills – the kind of thing that she didn't get from her mother.

“It sounds like you care for her, at least.”

“Of course I do,” she replied as if offended. “She's such a good friend, and tried to include me and when she said that she didn't hesitate she was pushing me to tell A- to tell the boy we like how I felt, and she was so ... so sweet and honest and hopeful when she told me how she feels about me that- that I just wanted to...”

“What?”

“To-” She shrugged helplessly, naked shoulders rolling up. “I don't know, hug her and tell her that it would be alright.”

“Well, princess, that's just further testimony to your massive heart. Like I said,” he added while gesturing at all of her, “beautiful inside and out.”

She waved him off as if she didn't believe him and he made a note to compliment her that way as Adrien. See her withstand _that_.

“But that doesn't mean that I have feelings for her. I'd do that for any of my friends when they were struggling a little bit.”

“Well, then, is there anything about her that isn't ... just friendly?” That was the rub, and the very crux of the issue. She'd been a beautiful blushing mess between him and Kagami, but was that just embarrassment?

“I mean, I know that some of my guy friends are good looking, but it's a completely different feeling than the one I get when-” He cleared his throat and sniffed, a claw flicking over his nose. “When I look at a girl I like.”

A palm rose, smacking against her face that was slowly blooming with a hearty flush. Her lips moved, the sound of her voice so soft that even he with his enhanced hearing couldn't pick out the words.

“What was that?”

“I said,” she added, still in a mumble, “that- that she...”

“Is everything alright?” Chat grit out. A hand rose and fell back to his hip, claws digging into the mystical spandex-leather of his costume. “She- she didn't do anything, did she?”

What he really meant was ' _he_ didn't do anything, did he?' Yet he couldn't say that.

“She has really sick abs, okay!” Marinette nearly crowed, wheeling on him, throwing her fists to her sides.

He could have roasted marshmallows with a blush that hot. Made s'mores off Marinette's face.

“Well,” he began in a small voice, blinking rapidly like a confused child. “It kind of sounds like you might find her... attractive?.”

"Yeah, I know," she sighed, collapsing onto her forearms and leaning into the railing while blowing out a raspberry, "but what am I going to do about that? I- I just..."

"You really don't have to tell me," he offered gently. His hand, tentative for a moment because he was about to press his glove against her naked flesh, smoothed over her shoulder as he gave her a comforting squeeze, mindful of his claws, "but I'm here to listen if you need it."

"It's just that I.. I loved him for so long that it feels like I'm giving up," she muttered into her arm, though her head tilted over towards his hand.

"On him?" That really didn't make any sense, unless... unless she meant that she was going to become _his_ rival for Kagami.

"No!" she nearly screeched, jerking up to shake her head. "Not on him because – uh.... I mean, it's not giving up on him if we're – if it's a girl or- uh..."

He held up a hand, stress bleeding from his shoulders and spine as, given his inside knowledge, that was enough to placate him and allay his fears. "It's okay, princess. Just take your time."

"Uh, well. Not _him_. It's like giving up something... childish but- but important," she said while curling her arms around her torso in a way that made him really want to throw himself around her shoulders and give her some cuddles while demonstrating the healing properties of a cat's purr.

"Whenever I thought of being with him, I saw ... an ideal – this abstract thing where I got everything exactly as I wanted and it was like – 3 kids, my dream career, my dream guy. It was all-"

Her lips twisted up into an expression he could only equate to the thoughtful pout that was plastered to her face when she got caught up with a design on her sketch book between classes in that focused way that Adrien had realized that he actually kind of loved.

Like with Ladybug in her battle-planning or Kagami locking blades with him, a girl was at her most beautiful when she was in her element, at her best.

"It was all a stereotype. And then I'm looking at her and suddenly I'm this blushing stuttering mess and it's frightening and exciting and ... _weird_. I didn't think that I was ... different."

“You know, I can empathize,” he offered softly, simply because he _had_ to tell her, to let her know, even if it wasn't Adrien, that 'he' felt the same way.

A somewhat suspicious glare was leveled in his direction. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed with a nod. “See, Hawkmoth sent this ... Ladybug Amok who pretended to be hurt. When I tried to help her, I- I had her in my arms and it was like it was everything that I wanted and more. She told me that she loved me and wanted to _be_ with me. I needed so badly to believe that... somebody I had chosen to love loved me back that I even turned on the real Ladybug when she showed up.”

“That must have been hard for both of you.” It was actually somewhat cute the way Marinette seemed to be struggling to find the right words, keeping things general.

He sighed and began to reach back to pull his belt-tail to his front and trail his claw through the loops and buckle holes.

“It was,” he admitted, rolling up the end of his tail, “especially because I always said that I would be able to tell who Ladybug was under the mask, but when it really came down to it, I couldn't even tell who she was _with_ the mask. I was so focused on this ... perfect vision of how things should be that I didn't even realize I had no idea what was real.”

“You know that it's okay to have crushes, to get caught up in the moment like that, right?” Marinette, seemingly having forgotten her own problems in favour of addressing his because that was just like her, leaned in to further muss up his hair like he sometimes imagined that a big brother or sister might, and it had warmth seeping down from the crown of his head. He dripped with it, like he was caught in a pleasant summer rain. “We can all get-” she looked sick for a moment “get overwhelmed by our feelings and make ... terrible mistakes. Its not wrong for you to love her but still make them.”

“Trust me. I screw up enough to know that, but I guess that it helped me to realize that what I felt and what I wanted wasn't fully healthy or fully real. A relationship – I mean, I'm a mess a lot of the time. People don't always see it, but I am, and I shouldn't expect a relationship to fix that or for the girls that I like to be any better.”

And Adrien wasn't the perfect paragon _Gabriel's_ PR agents and photographers made him out to be. He wasn't an ideal prize. How could he expect or want something that was?

“That's ... very mature of you, Chat.” Her hands swept over his cat ears in a vague petting motion. ”I'm impressed, really.”

“It took a lot for me to figure that out, but I tried it and a real mess can actually be... good. I hope that I can be too,” he finished almost to himself.

“And I know how _that_ feels, Chat,” she affirmed. There was something broken and honest in the way that she spoke and it reminded him again of Kagami when she truly acknowledged that, yes, they had problems that they didn't know how to fix.

“See, it's not like I'm afraid of being ... different. I've got friends who are- well, a boy that I dated for a little while explained that he was 'pan,' and his sister has a girlfriend, but I have a lot of problems, Chat. Like, so many that you wouldn't even believe it, so I'm _already_ different. I worry about things all the time, and my – my mind gets away from me when I know that it _shouldn't._ I just thought that I was – _oh_! _”_

 _S_ he jerked to a stop as if she'd hit a mental wall, eyes suddenly wide and desperate as she slapped her palms to her temples.

“God. I was going to say ' _normal_!' Th-that's horrible. How could I ever think that Juleka and Luka aren't _normal_ when they're two of the kindest people I know, and what does that say about _me_ that I would even _think_ about it as if they weren't and- and they're so much stronger than me because I don't even know if I could handle being so open and honest about it all, and- and I don't-”

Unable to stand even a single moment more, even though he felt that he owed it to her to let it all out, he grabbed her by the wrist, cutting her off as he tugged her forward, and asked as if she would be doing him a favour, which she would, “Can I hug you?”

Her gaze flitted about, seeking an escape route from her own mind, fragile, questing.

“Uh- yeah. Hugs are good,” she stumbled. “I like hugs.”

In a protective sweep, his arms curved around her stomach and pulled her back into his chest, forcing a sharp intake of breath that had her inflate in his hold. Unsteady hands grabbed onto his forearms as he squeezed tight, his anxious purr racing through both of them as she craned her neck to stare into his face, wide-eyed. A tight grip on her belly allowed him to stabilize her as he moved in to rub his chin into the top of her head.

“Sorry, Marinette,” he mumbled, suddenly desperately worried that he had overstepped. “You just really looked like you could use one.”

“That's okay, Chat,” she assured with a pat to his bicep. “I think that I kinda needed it."

“You said that this girl cares about you. If that's true, whether you care about her as a friend or something else, you can trust her enough to be honest with her- with any of the people who care about you.”

Just as he was being with her now, even if Adrien, to protect his miraculous, couldn't be.

“Whatever she is, if she cares, she'll want to help you with being _different_. Just talk to her. I know that, whatever happens, you'll work it out just by... talking through it.”

“You –“ She gulped before continuing in a indecisive whisper, “You think so?”

“I do,” he affirmed with a smooth nod, his voice coming out far more sure than he actually was given his own anxieties, “and whatever you decide, I hope that she makes you happy, princess, as a friend or something else. It's nothing less than what you deserve.”

While he would have preferred to keep her in his arms, she seemed to need the comfort of his grip for only a few moments, as she stiffened in his hold, that look of confident resolve she got when she was going to put Chloe in her place and made it seem like should could take on the world with nothing more than a sewing kit settling over her features.

“... so do I,” she said, tone not quite fitting with her expression as she patted his arm in a silent request for him to release her. Of course, he acceded with an awkward flush as he ran a hand through his hair. “You're right she and ... the guy we both like have to sit down and figure things out.”

“I'm sure that he'll be very grateful that you two are thinking about how he feels in all this.”

“Of course, Chat,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I- I could never hurt him. No matter what happens, or how I feel, that's the most important thing.”

Behind his mask, Chat Noir did not get misty-eyed.

He started to cry, turning his face to hide it.

Just a few tears, but there was the swelling tightness in his throat and the way his tail that had been so lively and enthusiastic only moments earlier drooped, flaccid, and the piercing pain of his fangs in his lips...

After a decade sealed up in the cool, sterile Agreste mansion, his only friend the overbearing Chloe who sometimes seemed to care more for his status than for _him_ , and his only companion his mute bodyguard and that was _lucky_ because Kagami hadn't even had _that_ , the mixed rush of emotions was more than he could name or describe.

How could he have been so lucky to find two people who cared enough to ... to make how _he_ felt the most important thing?

How could he make that up to them when they might have worse needs than his own?

Apparently, Marinette had been mulling over something while he'd been moping over himself again, as she turned to him, the light of the low sun in the sky casting her pale skin in a glow while shimmering in those nearly blue highlights in her hair so that it looked almost like it was liquid silk threaded with strands of woven sapphire.

Again, he knew that he was a sap, but good lord! Was it any wonder that, as Plagg put it, he was well and truly whipped?

“You know, Chat?” she offered slowly, considering him with a critical eye as if she had only just realized that he was a leather-clad cat-boy and was assessing his sanity. “That girlfriend of yours?”  
  
“Yeah?” he sniffed. “What about her?”

“She's pretty lucky to have you.” A smile and a shove that sent him clambering up to the balustrade. “You're... you're a sweet guy too when you want to be. Ladybug missed out on something.”

“Princess, let me tell you that _I'm_ the lucky one,” he said as he bowed to hide a smile that was too wide and adoring to cover over as anything else but the result of infatuation.

“And as for LB, well... “ Rising to his full height, face still angled away from her just enough to hide how smitten he must look, he offered her one of his characteristic two-fingered salutes. “Maybe that was lucky too.”

And he was off with a laugh, yelling behind him as he nearly collided with a street sign, “Take care of your princess, princess!”

Chat Noir may just have made the Ladyblog that evening because he did, indeed, whoop most of the way home, even if he did so just slightly tearfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug was an eminently frustrating episode for me as Chat Noir failed to use even a scintilla of basic logic and reasoning skills, leading him to actually attack his partner. 
> 
> I always wanted to do something with the incident to try to lessen what felt like canon character-assassination-levels of foolishness on his part by delving into his motives in that moment, the desperate need to feel loved that leads many teens to do things that they regret, especially when they have grown up in an emotionally abusive home. 
> 
> Likewise, I have to think that his failure to properly identify "the girl he's in love with" would shake his romantic heart to the core, causing him to reconsider his relationship and the sincerity of his feelings for a girl whom he has always been confident he would "love without the mask" if he couldn't even tell who she was. 
> 
> Not sure how well I captured Marinette's side of things - the realization that all those dreams that you had as a child, because they were childish and expected of you, don't quite fit with who you actually are, which is only compounded by the fact that she already has to deal with what appears to be untreated anxiety disorder.


	5. A Long-Awaited Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ready for what may be their first or last "date," Kagami and her boyfriend wait for their potential girlfriend.
> 
> A relationship can't be built on flirting alone. Most of the time, you just have to sit and talk things through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's only been... four months since I updated this work. 
> 
> It's time to finish this piece, and this time, everything that remains has already been written, so no more unconscionable hiatuses.

Confession was easy; conversation was difficult.

From the way that Adrien retreated into kindness and those grins that were just as alien and disturbing as Kagami's own when they took their first steps towards honest communication, the fencer knew this to be true.

Relationships were a bizarre muddle of indescribable feelings and awkward gestures, too heavily dependent on alien social convention, expectation, and subtlety. Flirtatious probing of Marinette's defences aside, Kagami did not do subtle. Interactions with Adrien had proven ... confusing for a time, but the reason for this complex web of deception and concealment became obvious.

Feelings could hurt you. Badly. They could also hurt others, and her mother had never trained her to realize that sometimes that was worse. Instead, Tomoe found it so easy to pluck secrets from her, to rub pretense and flesh down to the bone. So you hid things to protect yourself – to not be weak – and you hid things because you were weak.

Kagami was settled on a park bench near college Francois Dupont, allowing the scent of grass and vetiver to flood her nose and fill her lungs with each slow breath. Sunshine filtered through the canopy of shade offered by an oak tree, heating her upturned face, while a different kind warmed her hand, Adrien's fingers entwined with hers.

As he stroked the back of her knuckles, squeezing in that rhythmic way she liked, she could not help but appreciate the liquid warmth of his eyes. The heat in them stoked fire in her gut that was enough to melt all her steel and stone, leaving her a watery mess. She had to turn away to hide yet another small victory in his favour when he brought her palm to his mouth and kissed it, lips buttery soft as they danced over her lifeline.

Flirt. Miserable and manipulative and overconfident flirt, trying to distract her. Where did that easy confidence come from? The kind that had his his luscious pink lips turning upward - that wiped away all fear, cast it out of him? Even still, he failed, as in turning to hide the colour in her cheeks, she spotted the girl.

After a gulp of air, Kagami stopped breathing, clawing at Adrien's hand.

That Marinette was dangerous had always been obvious.

On the ice surface, Marinette was a tornado of fumbling blades that could spin out of control and smash face first into a wall, risking a broken neck and a host of lacerations to innocent bystanders.

The energy of a storm was awe-inspiring, enthralling and seductive as only something dangerous could be, but in Marinette's eye, Kagami felt like the world itself could crumble, and the gentleness would still hold her safely.

Everything about Adrien made her feel the same way... except his being a petulant little monster or competent opponent.

A storm was also useless, however; rudderless. Marinette flailed and spasmsed and crashed through life. Gods help the world if Marinette ever found direction; stopped hesitating and focused wholeheartedly on one thing.

The thought of a Marinette who knew what she wanted, and determined to do whatever was necessary to obtain it, made Kagami shiver, and not just from fear.

But the _sight_ of it did more as the other girl strode down the park pathway towards her and Adrien. Under one arm, she carried a small pink cardboard box stuffed, no doubt, with gifts from the bakery. Fat and sugar would appall Tomoe and Gabriel.

As if that sight needed to become even more mouthwatering...

"Hey!" Marinette rushed them as if she was trying to outpace herself.

Adrien waved in greeting. A nod sufficed for Kagami.

To her great regret, the laser-focused confidence broke when Marinette took a seat next to Adrien, the box of pastries set on her lap. Instead, she was assiduously avoiding actually looking at them, blush firmly in place.

Adrien was first to act. Whatever his reassurances, Adrien protected Marinette; he partnered with Kagami.

"Are you alright, Marinette?" he asked, gentle flirtations giving way to pained concern already. "If there's anything that we can do to make you more comfortable, just let us know, okay? I mean, we can chat about something else for a while or go for a walk."

The way he reached out, the subtle interplay of his hands as he feigned calm. So invested already.

Was this a mistake? Either way, the move was made. Better to risk it all than to live like a coward – to not go after what you wanted because you were afraid to fail, or afraid to lose what you already had... however afraid she might be.

"Thanks, Adrien. I- I think that ... No." Rejection broke Adrien, and he took it as such for a moment; Kagami could see it in his eyes, so she curled an arm around his broad shoulders, holding him up.

Marinette's frantic gesticulations were an attempt at apology. "Uh- what I mean is that I just have to get through this, you know? Just ... actually talk about it and get it over with."

"Get it over with?" Kagami quirked a brow, though that may have made her appear too harsh. Was that fear? "If you are not interested, you are well within your rights to simply say so."

"No. That's not what I mean. I just..." The ugly sigh and frustrated grunt were less than encouraging. Marinette folded open the lid of the box in her lap and grabbed what appeared to be a passionfruit macaron in order to stuff it into her mouth.

"You know that whatever happens, we're your friends, right Marinette? The most important thing is keeping each other safe. Making sure no one gets hurt." There was a portentous lilt to the way he spoke.

Conversations wherein things were withheld were frustrating, if necessary. Inequalities in power and knowledge led to ... outcomes that were less than ideal. That, Tomoe had indeed taught her well.

Marinette's shaky nod was more disbelief than acceptance. Her partner required assistance, as did their... potential girlfriend.

"You are my first friend – my only friend other than Adrien." Kagami reached out to accept a cookie, offered tentatively. Did that mean something? "Whatever happens, your well-being and that friendship are most important."

That was the right thing to say, and Kagami could take pride in that. Marinette's shoulder drooped just that one inch from tense to neutral, her face no longer held expressionless.

"And we're really thankful for your just being willing to talk about this."

"Of course." Marinette inclined her head, smiling at something distant. Fire now. The resurgence of confidence. When disturbed, Adrien and Marinette shifted and swirled like water, enough to make Kagami dizzy. "So what – what _is_ this? What made you think about this?"

Marinette tried to impose order on the world by organizing what was already there, the tools and raw materials she had; Kagami merely barrelled through, changed the variables, added something new.

"I saw that both Adrien and I... things are easier with you. More comfortable. More natural."

"And it's not just selfish, Marinette!" Adrien leaned into the other girl's space, the stupidly earnest expression on his face the same one that he had shown Kagami when he'd finally said, with conviction rather than confusion: _I love Marinette._

"It's like... I never saw you being able to let your hair down around me before Kagami and I were together. You looked happy like – like it was easier for you too, and I- I like how we are together." He looked away, pretending to be interested in the foliage. "And I like you too. Does that make sense?"

"You- you _like_ me?" Marinette mouthed to word like Adrien was speaking Mandarin – like it was a language she had heard and should know in some way, but had forgotten.

How strange. Had they not made their intentions and feelings clear enough?

Adrien nodded and looked at Marinette in the way that, once, Kagami would only have wanted him to look at her.

Now, Kagami felt that she shared his expression.

"Okay. That's okay. That's- that's something. But I- it's a lot more complicated than that, though," Marinette almost pleaded in a rush, just on the visible edge of babbling and breaking down as she did so often with Adrien, as if she was looking for an excuse – looking right into what Kagami hoped were reassuring brown eyes. "I mean, I've _heard_ of this kind of thing, but I don't even know how it would work."

To cover her own thoughts and give them time to mull, Kagami reached into the box on Marinette's lap, leaning in over Adrien's lap and retrieving a macaron.

She withdrew and chewed it slowly.

Still. A matter of logistics, rather than desire as the pair of them watched and waited for her to finish.

Of course. A relationship was nightmarishly complex. Four would be... a worthy challenge when the reward, taken and given away, could be so - Marinette's brow was creased in thought as she calculated and processed, while Adrien threw up a practiced façade to appear calm and reassuring for both of them –

 _Beautiful_.

Enough to be worth the risk of defeat.

"Our lives are already complicated, Marinette, with our many responsibilities." A breath, drawing up confidence, mirroring the other girl. "If they are to be complex, why not make them so because we have chosen it? Because it's something that we want and that may make us happy?"

"I... You both said some... very flattering things about me, but I- I don't know if I could be happy like that," Marinette admitted, playing with her earlobe. "It's not something that I ever thought of before. I've been trying to wrap my head around it, but I still can't."

"I don't think that you should or that you have to. It's supposed to be something that ... all of us figure out together." A circular motion of Adrien's hand indicated the entire bench. "There's no box or manual or plan, and that's scary, I know. It's just about ... people figuring out what they need themselves, what they've got, and what they can give each other."

Remarkably mature; Adrien had studied the reams of articles she'd sent.

"That may be different for all of us." Kagami brought up her cell phone, contemplating sharing some of the series of texts on polyamory, but chose, on examining the thoughtful fear on Marinette's face, to pocket it again. Marinette did not think as she did. _Different_ , after all.

What was it that Marinette feared? What was it that she needed?

"I think that this must seem cruel to you, Marinette – as if Adrien and I are ... dangling something in front of you and taunting you with it." In her mind, she saw Tomoe, always one pivot, one half-step or stroke, ahead, even though she could throw Kagami to the ground in an instant. Hope wasn't always a kindness; it could merely prolong cruelty. Her palm tasted of salt when she smoothed it over her brow and then her lips. "We want to do the opposite. I see that you ... want things, and I want to be able to give them to you, and to be the one to give them to you, because that would make me ... happy."

"The world's a better place when you're happy, Marinette, and Kagami too." Adrien interjected as he traced circles on his palm, face like a bursting-sweet cherry tomato. "I want to make it that way, because then my world's a little brighter too."

If her boyfriend ever found the will and focus, he could easily kill them both.

"Even if it's a matter of ... negotiating, and you're both willing to – I don't know. I'm just not sure that I could be in whatever it is that you're proposing." The way Marinette was tapping her thigh, foot bouncing on the pavement, made her look as if she was charging up energy to bolt. "I- I'm a very jealous person, really. Not who you think I am."

Supplementing Adrien's sincerity, balancing him to calm the storm, was a daunting prospect. Having a partner was helpful, but you still had to synchronize your motions.

"Oh," she chuffed. "Then we must have the wrong bench, Adrien."

"What?" Adrien spoke, looking just as perplexed as Marinette herself.

"We were meant to be meeting with Marinette, the girl who stepped aside to allow me to court you-" Adrien's finger rose as if he was about to dispute his being labelled the _object_ of the courting, but seemed to think better of it. Wise of him. - "but clearly we are meeting Marinette's 'Felix.'"

"I think that's just Lila, actually," Adrien added with a scowl that mirrored the one that darkened Marinette's as well.

"Quite true. So, if you are not the girl who hesitated in order to give me my chance, who are you?"

"I'm ... not always that person." The tight, suppressed snarl to Marinette's voice made Kagami want to hurt someone, but she had no visible target.

"Are you referring to Friendship day, when you attempted to sabotage me?" Kagami asked instead, probing.

"No." Marinette sighed and set her shoulders, a not-quite-flinch offset as she leaned back into the seat, slightly further away from the boy between them. "Worse than that. It was during the Ladybug and Chat Noir movie premiere."

Oh. Unexpected.

"What did you do then?" Adrien asked. The way Marinette's eyes slited into stern lines and her posture shifted into combative tension... She was at war with herself. Marinette realized that Kagami, at least, knew.

"The series of difficulties that we encountered, yes?"

"What?" Adrien yelped. "No. Marinette would never do anything like that. That- that must have been Chloe. She was bothering you all night."

"Only for most of the night. At other times, she was with Marinette."

Marinette help up a hand to forestall Adrien's retort, which, from the heat of his face and the way he was fidgeting as if he'd just sat on a hot coal, struggling against himself, was forthcoming.

That dangerous resolution again had Kagami squinting. Bravery. Something to be respected. Honored and acknowledged.

"It's worse than that, Adrien. I- I helped her with a plan to ruin Kagami's dress. I let my jealousy and my fears make me into something ugly. No. _I_ was something ugly, and it just came out then."

The revelation clearly came as a surprise to Adrien, who winced as if struck in his gut, or withered as he did when being lectured by his father, every harsh word and failure chipping away at his vast reserve of love.

Kagami had not expected it, but it slipped into the pattern of behavior and fear that Marinette had already demonstrated a desire to break.

"We are all ugly at times, Marinette. I was not... without fault that evening either."

Even in his apparent distraction, Adrien repositioned himself, slipping a hand to the base of her neck to run over the sweet spot of tight, corded muscle that always needed to be worked out. Tension flared and released, eliciting a subtle gasp.

"What do you mean?" Marinette asked without seeming to mind the gesture of affection, resting her chin on her palm.

"I-" A little intake of breath cut her off, leading her to ease Adrien's hand away. Not the time for that, even if he was just trying to be silly and lighten the mood. To show that he knew and still forgave her. "I was very... possessive that night. It was not right of me. I am not interested in you because you are perfect, but because you are good; that has not changed."

"She's right, Marinette. It takes ... a lot of courage to admit when you've done something wrong, and to try to make yourself a better person. I know that I made a lot of mistakes with... relationships. I tried to force things or rush ahead without taking the time to think things through, and that's not right. Any relationship needs patience to- to let people be wrong?"

Just who _was_ that mystery girl?

"Adrien- I – I mean..." It was as if her voice was being put through a wood-chipper and the pleading expression, eyes shifting rapidly in confusion, was like walking through a hail of splinters.

"You can say it, Marinette," Adrien placated with a tender lilt so much like the voice he used when, on one of their dates, he had come upon an emaciated tom cat that hissed and snarled before being coaxed into Adrien lap and lavished with gentle scratches and pets.

Kagami would have walked right by him; Adrien took him to a shelter and checked up to make certain he had been adopted.

"What?"

" _Whatever_ you have to say," Kagami said, heart clenching up as the pained expression on Marinette's face tangled up with the pleasant memory of Adrien's tenderness. "It is no doubt important, and though you may be afraid, there is no reason to be."

"That kind of makes it worse ... that I am," she sighed, so obviously ashamed.

She erred in her approach.

"I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable, Marinette."

"No! It's not you; it's me. I'm the one who fumbles over everything and makes mistakes and can never just say what I want to say even though you – you _two_ have been so open and- and brave about everything."

"It is easy to be brave when you are not alone," Kagami offered because for all her own cowardice, that merely came out in ways that the girl before her couldn't yet understand, experience allowed her to know it was true.

Marinette considered her for a moment, nearly crushing a macaron in her fingers. Its glassy surface cracked, fragrant cream oozing out.

"It's not easy," Marinette corrected, though there was a hint of ... concern, before stuffing a macaron in her mouth and licking up the cream in a way that Adrien was very interested in. "It's just not so hard."

"Then allow us to be brave again. We have spoken, and we know that both of us have feelings for you."

Marinette set her jaw, resolved, as she had been at Andre's cart. "Usually, that just means that you forget about them or ignore them until they go away."

She was parrying the forward thrust, trying to deflect and find an escape. Was there a way to counter without striking deep?

"And you have tried to do that," Kagami asked, trying to appear curious rather than demanding. Controlling the tenor of one's voice, as Adrien could so easily, was not something she had practiced. So many things took practice. "Was it successful?"

Adrien raced in to defend her before Marinette could answer. Case in point as to the benefits of having a partner, and Adrien was already trying to support them both.

"I tried to do that too, and – and it doesn't really stop." He shook his head, eyes to the treeline above them as if his mind and his heart were further away than Kagami or Marinette could see. "You just try to work on something else until you realize that you've got something good, and maybe that could be this... if you want, Marinette. Or if you want to try."

"Okay," Marinette half-whispered, as if unsure - like she was shifting through a pile of coins, trying to collect the proper change to pay for orange juice. Kagami watched her worry her lips, calculating, planning out possibilities, outcomes, a winding series of paths that could lead to nowhere or worse yet places utterly unimagined and thus terrifying.

A fear of the unknown future was something that Kagami could understand; when plans and processes and the logical evolution of steps took you somewhere unpredictable. There should be a mathematical precision to things. It would make life easy.

Adrien reached out with a questioning look to wait for Marinette to nod and give him leave. It came, and he clasped the other girl's smooth, bare forearm.

Well struck.

"What exactly are you proposing here?" Marinette asked, sighing as if almost too tired to speak. Her arm turned in his grip, a squirming mouse caught in a cat's paws, but she did not try to pull away. "What does this... _this_ look like?"

"Spend time together going on dates, seeing what works," Adrien offered in a painfully sincere hushed explosion, like a pop bottle that had been shaken up and left to sit for a week before bursting when you tried to open it.

Adorable, but not practical. Not what Marinette needed.

Were he not excited, he would likely have been more reserved and helpful.

It was not hubris that made her think as she shook her head that the two of them might actually be slightly lost without her.

"What Adrien means is that we wish to explore these feelings. To spend time with you alone and together so that we can better understand them."

"You make it sound so easy when this is – this is so _different_." Marinette nearly lamented, scratching at her throat with her free hand. Micro-tremors raced through the other one, rocking her body, but Adrien held firm.

"Different can be good too," Adrien said. There was nothing threatening about the way he smiled for her, just the same way that he had earlier in the week. So many of his smiles were lies, but never the desire behind them. He smiled to protect himself, and to protect others. "The world is a pretty weird place these days, and- and as long as we try to do what makes us happy, we should be alright, right?"

Marinette's eyes rose, and for an instant, Kagami did not recognize the kind girl who may have taken real steps towards winning both her and Adrien's hearts.

"Relationships aren't always about happiness." Her hand formed into a fist, the shudders abating. "When times are tough with the bakery, they're about... making the best of bad things. Helping to live through things together that you couldn't get through alone."

"I-" Adrien shook his head, biting down on his lip so hard Kagami actually worried that he might mar it in advance of one of his upcoming photoshoots. The sigh almost sounded as if he was surrendering to something. Giving up. "You're right, Marinette. Whether they're romantic or just friendly, relationships are about working through the bad just as much as they are enjoying the good. It's about supporting each other when the world's rough and you and-"

His eyes were dark, well-plucked and groomed eyebrows folding down, as he surveyed Marinette and then Kagami in turn. She held back a shudder. Kagami liked intensity. Focus.

"And you and the people you really care about are all you've got."

How was it that Adrien said that with such conviction? As if he knew it from experience, even though Kagami was his first girlfriend. Galling. There was a depth to this conversation about which she was unaware.

"Adrien and I are both familiar with responsibilities and difficult relationships." Kagami breathed out the prickling resentment. "These are things to be recognized and grappled with."

"And is that worth it?"

From the way that Adrien's eyes shifted and the smile reached them, it was obvious that he heard the real question.

She had heard Adrien asking it without words often enough to know.

It would be a lie to say that she hadn't posed it to herself on occasion when considering her relationships.

"Of course, Marinette." Adrien's free hand covered Marinette's fist while Kagami rested more heavily on his shoulder. You're a wonderful person. Anything that lets us spend time with you – lets us get to know you better would be worthwhile."

_You are worth it._

Marinette's mouth was flapping, popping like a goldfish that had forgotten how to breathe in water.

"This is a new experience for all of us. I am not... an emotional person, but I know that I enjoy my time with both of you, and that I find you highly attractive. I believe the same is true for you, yes?"

Eyes told you a great deal. The subtle motions telegraphed strikes as much as any posture or position.

Marinette's eyes winked away from Adrien's smiling face towards Kagami's chest and lower for just a moment.

"Egg-rest that's tight." Marinette's voice pitched upwards for a moment. From the reciprocal blush that flared, her physical assessment of Kagami's concealed ... tight abs (?), was favorable. "I- I mean I – I _guess!_ _Guess_ that's _right_! It's just – just that I may need some- some time to sink- _think_!"

"You can take all the time that you need, Marinette. We're not in a rush, and whatever you decide, we'll understand." It was unclear whether Adrien truly meant that, though even if he understood, it was unlikely that he was to take the implied rejection well.

They would simply have to see, and they did as they spent the rest of the afternoon coaxing and bantering, slipping into old routines and patterns that were just askew from the norm in some fashion that left Kagami off-balance.

There was no more thrilling a moment in a fight, none that made you feel alive, than when you lost your footing, caught in the terror, on the edge of tumbling, and had to use all your wits and skills to wrest victory from the abyss. 

If all their ... dates went like this, Kagami might not survive. It was difficult fending off two untrained but naturally-gifted people trying to kill you.

While on their walk, Adrien began to hum absently, admiring the greenery and the birds that flitted about above them on occasion, or staring at the patterns of light and shade cast from the trees, turning his head as the twisting shapes told a story with shadow puppets.

There was something thick in her throat. To see such innocence always had her reeling. What mattered – what truly mattered in both Marinette and Adrien – was the gentleness, the sense that you could be weak and that they were willing to show the worst and best parts of themselves alike. The unknown, the unexperienced, was terrifying and seductive.

Marinette felt the same way as the hum turned into a snippet of music and then a low, warbled love ballad that Adrien may not have known that he was singing.

While Marinette was distracted on their slow, ambling walk, Kagami reached out and hesitated just a moment before taking the other girl's hand.

A shiver tingled its way down Marinette's shoulder, visible with the flair of her jacket, lines of fabric creasing as Marinette turned to fixate on their hands. Her eyes were wide and gorgeous as they had been in the locker room

Adrien was watching them. His song had eased into something intentional and conscious, strained in how organic it feigned to be.

Kagami had to tug Marinette's hand to hold them up when, after one frozen heartbeat, she nearly tripped over her own feet and face-planted into a tree along the side of the path.

Flushing with embarrassment and, Kagami hoped, something else, Marinette continued on as if nothing had happened.

But Adrien's song became natural again.

Because Marinette squeezed her hand back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you, and any new readers who reach this point, enjoy the rest of the work, and I would love to hear what you've thought about the polyamory negotiation, characterization, or any other aspect of the story in a review.
> 
> Honestly, it was an error made by a much "younger" me to move ahead with the series without completing this work to bridge the gap, as it left me beholden not only to the series and my own past characterization, but also future plotting and developments. For obvious reasons, I'm not entirely pleased with this chapter, but it is what it is. 
> 
> An interesting learning experience at least.
> 
> Happy reading, wherever your travels take you, and may you be blessed this coming year.


	6. A Few Faint Touches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami, Marinette, and Adrien begin to learn who they are in all their myriad combinations of flavours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next two chapters are not strictly necessary to understand the sequels, and there is little real "plot development;" however I wanted to at least gesture towards the terrible complexity of developing the series of relationships that these three characters have chosen to explore together.

Initially, there was no discernible change to the way in which they interacted.

To the world, there couldn't be.

Kagami's mother would not tolerate something like _this_ , and Adrien's father had... expectations for his son's image.

They started as friends, and they spoke at length of the fact that they could not appear to be more than that, at least for now, whatever happened.

The slow-waltz of repositioning themselves to find stable ground and move forward was somewhat reminiscent of Kagami's initial interactions with Adrien. Kagami recognized that she did things quickly, pushed until things broke; if you were to apply yourself, why wouldn't you go at full speed? Engaging with Adrien and Marinette was a learning experience in many ways.

Ice cream was shared slightly more readily. Across several excursions between ... friends, who sat just a little too close together, each of them made a game of picking out a trio that “worked” for the other members. Adrien tried coffee, maple, and peanut butter, representing Kagami, Marinette, and himself, and Andre veritably jiggled in enthusiasm as he handed over the confection with a typical rhyme and flourish.

“New love can be thrilling, daring, and sweet, a medley of flavours we all want to eat.” Andre held the tall ice-cream cone to Marinette, but refused to allow it to pass from his hands before he finished, his heavy-accent growing thicker in a way that Kagami almost thought was a threat. Perhaps a warning. “Just remember, tastes change over time, and needs must be met. No matter the savour, listening and talking are always a sure bet.”

Tiresome, but for whatever reason, it made Marinette blush as she handed over the change after insisting that _she_ pay this time, so Kagami countenanced the silliness.

A week later, Marinette selected Sweet Corn (she had already reached the point that, at least on occasion, she could tease Adrien for being both sweet and horribly corny; he tried so hard to be silly and set her at ease), rum for Kagami, and cinnamon. This time, Andre surveyed the three, nodded, and handed it over without a rhyme, which left Adrien only slightly crestfallen.

While they were eating it on an easy stroll, her boyfriend commented that the flavours were alright together, like a meal from the American south, but cinnamon seemed too spicy for Marinette.

A shrug had dismissed him, before with a spurt of courage their ... possible girlfriend leaned into his personal space to sweep a dollop of ice cream from just beside his lips and then suck it off of her thumb.

What a glorious little monster they were creating.

It took only a few seconds for them to break down into blushing and flustered messes while Kagami shook her head, and they walked on.

They were also slightly more tactile, and Kagami realized how much she loved it. Needed it, in a way.

The crush of arms around her, Marinette's ecstatic heartbeat racing through both their bodies as she giggled and squealed over the penguins at the zoo they were visiting together.

The subtle interplay of fingers underneath a table.

The way that Adrien could put his arm around her shoulders in the theatre and just let his weight _lay_ there

Touch took on a whole new realm of meaning that Kagami had to study to begin to understand.

Of course, dates with Adrien were... difficult. Too often, they met at a business dinner and stood at a formal distance, only allowed to come together when they were permitted onto the dance floor and asked to perform.  
  
Dancing did not involve a kind of footwork that Kagami appreciated, but even with the reserved distance between them, it was the only thing that made those stodgy meetings tolerable. Only then, when she allowed herself the weakness of pressing just too close to Adrien's chest, could she pick up the ugly musk of something like cheese and a fleshy odour that was like a pleasant version of his smell after a fencing match. It was comforting to smell something behind his cologne, formulated by his father's design team.

Their fencing matches were thrilling, a battle and a partnership wherein they both pressed each other's limits – bettered each other. Could she want more than that?

Yes. She found that she could.

A year ago, perhaps not, but now she did.

It was a blessing and a curse: wanting more than you knew, more than you understood.

Dates with Marinette alone progressed in a largely unexpected fashion. Her natural propensity towards babble with Adrien was replaced by studious fixation on her orange juice and silence. Interesting if unpleasant as a development, and Kagami struggled initially to identify an appropriate means of breaking down this wall of silence.

Adrien proved useful even when not present. It was good for them to find their footing together, but Adrien helped them do so – helped them feel each other out.

He was the initial subject of conversation on their orange juice dates and the interludes to those few fencing matches that Adrien, for reasons of his father's last-minute alterations to his schedule, could not attend. They sat together, Kagami holding both of their water bottles, while Marinette wrestled with the tangle of her hair, and distracted herself from the painful tugs by waxing on about Adrien's sweetness until they fell into normalcy.

Progress with Marinette was slower than Kagami had hoped, but once the wall had been breached, they found that they had no need of Adrien to bridge the gap. It only took a few more breakfast meetups, and one or two times that Marinette had sneaked into the courtyard at Kagami's school, bearing lunch, and simply grinned in that ... horribly thrilling and smug way of hers, before sitting down to eat together. Kagami had not imagined that Marinette could look like that sometimes. If there was anything that could convince her that a disruption to her plans and expectations could be positive, though...

Then, they were speaking – actually speaking. Not of pretenses or shared crushes on Adrien, or even burgeoning shared love, but about each other, and dreams, parents, and hopes and fears and all those things that turned Marinette from a beautiful girl who interested and excited Kagami into ... something that Kagami did not have the words or the concepts to describe.

One such conversation took place at a cafe where they met purely as... friends, settling down at a table in the back and placing their orders for coffee and green tea.

A waitress eventually arrived with their orders, along with a plate of scones that Marinette clearly pretended to enjoy so as not to offend anyone. Marinette was even worse at lying than Kagami was at detecting them. Though she was never guilty of self-aggrandizement, Marinette was obviously highly proud of others, including her parents.

Kagami tried a sip of the sludge that Marinette insisted was “divine” and nearly had her tongue burned off by sugar. Had she any less of a sense of decorum, she would be tempted to grab a handful of dirt from a nearby decorative flower pot and eat it just to cut the sweetness. Her tea had to suffice.

“So, you actually agree with your mother?” Marinette's tone was measured, careful.

“I appreciate what she has done to prepare me, and while she wishes to see me succeed to add to our family legacy, the recognition won will be mine.”

“Is that-” Marinette trailed off, frustrating in her reluctance.

“Please go on.” Kagami punctuated the encouragement with a thrust of her chin.

“I- okay. Does that matter to you? How people look at you?”  
  
“Of course.” Sweet and musky steam rose up into Kagami's nostrils as she passed the cup under her nose. One savoured the entire experience of a good cup of tea. “It is only among our equals that we can prove what we are worth. It is ... nice to be with those with whom you do not have to, but there are very few such people. So, without competition on a level playing field, what are we?”  
  
“We're just... us? I don't know.” Marinette stared into her mug of coffee.

A deliberate deflation of Marinette's shoulders made her seem small when she bent over the table, Kagami easing lower in her chair to slip her free hand along the cool wooden surface. The other girl's fingers were rough against the side of her palm. Briefly, she looked to the other patrons, who saw nothing while her... friend repositioned their hands halfway behind the mug of coffee.

If only they were alone. There had been far too few opportunities in recent weeks to ease her nose to Marinette's throat, take in that rose perfume she sometime wore or just the easy, human smell of her skin, tucking her head under the other girl's chin to feel the flutter of Marinette's breath against her hair as she sang in a way that made Kagami... feel things. So many things she couldn't breathe or find the voice to beg for more.

She... wanted that Marinette.

“You are a far more ... _you_ when you are confident, so what do you really think?”

“What?” Her iris were blown so large when she looked up that they almost consumed Kagami. “I- I mean, I am sometimes, when I'm running for class representative or something, but that's not _always_ me.”

“You are worthy of that self-confidence and more, but you're deflecting from my question.” This kind of dance was just as frustrating as the ones with Adrien, when she could only get close for a moment before people pulled away. Grass and mustiness flooded her mouth as she took a sip of tea. “I think that you avoid saying what you actually think because you are worried that you will offend me. You will not, and even if you do, we will work through it.”

“Oh, well. I guess that-” Marinette shook her head, plunging a spoon into her coffee and stirring it clockwise, then counterclockwise. Swirling waves erupt with motion and counter-motion. “No. I know that with Lila manipulating people, a lot of the time, people don't deserve or earn their reputation. We only really know someone when we get to know them. Like with Adrien, or Jagged Stone, or you. I had an idea of you, but that wasn't who you are.”

“I do not need them to know who I am.” There was no need, in this case, for Kagami to hide her scorning frown, directing it away from Marinette to ensure she did not get the wrong idea. “I need only that they know of my accomplishments.”  
  
“To me, it doesn't really matter, I guess. Sure, I'd love to work ... I used to think that I'd love to work with Adrien's _father_ ,” she nearly spat, taking a violent sip of her coffee and even though it was loaded with sugar, the grimace made it look like she was swallowing a bitter pill indeed. “But that was just because I admired him – or who I thought he was. Because I wanted to learn from him. I'd be happy just... creating my commissions, doing what I love and making something beautiful every day.”

“You fail to set goals that are worthy of you, Marinette,” Kagami chided, though she struggled to keep her tone light, gentle. Not everything could be gentle. Was that still too harsh? Her hand slid up to Marinette's knuckles. “It is difficult for me to judge your work, but others speak highly of it. I... I would like to see you succeed. Get the recognition that you deserve from others, and not just me and Adrien.”

“ It's not like you have to win recognition, though,” Marinette retorted, and the fire was as pleasantly warm as her hand, which she turned over so they were fingers-to-fingers. “Not everything has to be a struggle... I hope.”

“Granted. We've established that life is a team sport, after all.”

Again, as was too often the case, Marinette looked at her as if she was talking to someone else. Perhaps herself.

“Yeah, but not just with us. People out there – like on Heroes' Day – can really surprise you. Support you. Be heroic. It's not just Lilas and Marinettes out there. It... it's easy to look at the world that way, but you miss out on a lot.”  
  
Kagami shrugged and reached for a scone with a free hand. “I have never felt as if I was missing out.”

“What if you hadn't changed your mind about me?” Marinette asked. The loss of contact felt like Kagami's epee had been ripped out of her grasp, leaving her defenceless, when Marinette cupped her mug in both hands. Though the fire was still there as she drummed her fingers along the while ceramic, it was cooling. “What if you hadn't given me a chance when I'd proven that I didn't deserve it?”

“But you did deserve it.”

“Could I...” Marinette rubbed a finger over her brow.”Could I say something that might offend you?”  
  
“You may _always_ speak your mind,” Kagami assured, pausing to ensure that Marinette was actually _listening_. “I would prefer to take offence at something spoken truly than be ignorant.”

The other girl gulped, and then nodded.

“Trying to figure out how other people think and- and who they really are is hard work for all of us. Is it possible that you're avoiding that? I- like I said, I- I'm sorry if that was offensive or – or too direct.-”

“Rest assured that you can never be too direct. Again, I appreciate your honesty. I have not viewed such things as important. You and Adrien are enough.”

“Enough of a pain, you mean.” It was a huff, possibly a joke. Kagami did not know.

She did know about hiding things from others, keeping yourself closed off, to avoid pain.

How much did she _actually_ do that? To hide how much she didn't understand.

“I ... would not be averse to continuing to talk about this, or ... perhaps being introduced to some of your acquaintances if you believe that it would benefit me.” She could hardly dismiss Marinette's attempt at being confident; not after trying to encourage her.

“Oh, I think that you'd really like Alya, if you were focused on the same thing,” Marinette nearly gushed, lighting up at the possibility as if the earlier fear was wiped away with the thrill of... helping Kagami. Beautiful.”You're both pretty, uh, tough.”

“Be that as it may, perhaps we should start with someone less energetic and forceful.”

“Juleka might be a little bit quiet,“ Marinette granted, eyes glassy and calculating. “I don't know if you'd have much to talk about.”

“You would be there, though. We could also arrange an activity of some sort.”  
  
“That sounds lovely.”  
  
“Is it a date, then.” The smile she did not feel was an indulgence for Marinette.  
  
“Nope,” Marinette popped, looking so delightfully smug, so ... knowing.

“I do not see why.”

“Rose would be jealous.”

Kagami merely arched a brow as Marinette chortled and downed the rest of her coffee.

As time passed, Kagami found the words, at least in part.

All she could say was that Marinette, like Adrien, was a person who Kagami could care for not because of objective beauty, kindness, or intrigue, but a person that Kagami had, without even realizing it, molded into her life. A person Kagami did not wish to live without because the absence would leave a hole too large to be filled.  
  
The thought was like death; she'd only just seen the gaping wound and found a way to start trying to fill it. She couldn't go back to what she was.

Only that fear allowed Kagami to realize it – realize what lay behind the reluctance to _risk_. To dare.

Marinette was crushed by fears, many of which she refused to share. The twitches and blushes and stumbling that Kagami had found endearing were... only sometimes so.

Fear oozed up like tar from a pit, bubbling black and reeking – an endless field of snares that could suffocate Marinette in an instant, or drag anyone under. Struggling against them only made you slide faster once you got caught in them.

Their interactions became strained, sending Kagami into retreats, Marinette into tailspins, Adrien into desperate self-recriminations. She emerged from dates bruised and battered. Emotional muscles burned in ways that she did not know possible as she exercised long-atrophied parts of herself. For their sakes and her own alike, she vowed with the determination of the future Olympic gold-medallist that she was – focus, will, and belief determined the future, whatever your fears – to train until she was ready to fight and win.

Research was required. Anything could be understood and overcome. It was simply the matter of identifying the weaknesses and strategizing

Marinette deserved nothing less than Kagami's best, and Adrien's too.

Their dates both with and without Adrien turned to more troubling subjects, and they sought to help her. They learnt together.

Things were not perfect, but they were... better.

Touch became as vital to them as talking and listening. Kagami hadn't realized how much she needed it, as did Marinette. Bruising tight hugs or a weighted blanket. Soft touches and hard ones, meaningful, casual, intentional, accidental – she soaked them all up, as much as Adrien and Marinette did.

He liked to lay out on them, and the heat and weight of him was as rousing as it was soothing.

Once, he fell asleep while they were watching one of his anime. There was the press of his legs, thrown over her, when he drifted off with his head in Marinette's lap, bonelessly contorted over both of them.

Rather than succumbing to some of her impulses to catastrophize, Marinette seemed wholly relaxed as she played with Adrien's hair, scratching his scalp with her blunted nails. Soft murrs and groans bubbled up from his mouth while he rolled his cheek against Marinette's thigh, and they both stared at his placid face, perfectly slack in sleep. Kagami learned just how much she adored watching the two of them when they were at peace and ... intimate in a wholly innocent way.

A shift, and she was holding hands with her girlfriend as they talked while Adrien slept.

It was too rare, though – far too rare that their schedules aligned and they could _be_ together like this.

The greatest surprise, though, was just how much they taught each other ever the coming weeks.

And not all of it was how to interlock their lives, soothe deep-set wounds, navigate a host of things that they were not quite ready to share or grapple with.

Some education was ... of a wholly different sort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was an interesting experience, as all writing is for me. How can I capture that harsh tenderness of Kagami, who would push where Adrien comforts and praises? How do I balance her respect and distaste for her mother, which is developing into an understanding of the older woman's failings? 
> 
> In the end, what are Marinette and Kagami to each other, without Adrien, and what would they be without him if it was just them? Could they work together and how? How do their lives fit together and what needs do they meet in each other's lives that Adrien, at this stage at least, cannot? 
> 
> All these kinds of questions sought to be answered in this chapter of pure polyamory negotiation and learning. I may have found and offered some answers.


	7. Survive by Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soft. Kagami's world is soft. Alien. Unimaginable until Adrien; he was a bed stuffed with goose feathers that she could snuggle into. Now, she drowns in a pool of molten wet softness.
> 
> Kagami teaches herself to lie, becomes addicted, and receives a visit from an unexpected partner.

Kagami learnt how to lie.

While she deceived herself daily, struggled to hold back and conceal so much that she couldn't understand or express, she was never skilled at lying to her mother who saw more than most could even with perfect eyesight.

To protect Marinette and the fragile little hunk of sugar crystal that the three of them cradled in their palms, trying to nurture it through its nucleation though none of them had any idea how the chemistry was supposed to work, Kagami taught herself how to lie better.

It was neither difficult nor easy to live by lies; on the contrary, it was effortless and impossible at once.

There was something perverse about the way she learnt to lie together with the two people she was trying to be honest with, something that Adrien noted when he quoted someone with an unpronounceable last name who once exhorted people to “live not by lies.” Adrien was always rather bookish; he had needed friends as a child and, for him, imagination and other people's stories had to suffice.

_Live not by lies._

Wise advice that Kagami would take, were it not necessary to survive by lies.

* * *

Soft.

Kagami's world is soft.

Alien.

Unimaginable until Adrien; he was a bed stuffed with goose feathers that she could snuggle into.

Now, she drowns in a pool of molten wet softness.

Softer than the baby-smooth skin on Adrien's well-exfoliated cheeks.

Softer than his lips.

Softer than the drippy soft-serve that rolled a trail of cream down the edge of the waffle cone she shared on her last date, with a sweeter hit of vanilla from the Neapolitan they had been eating and a shocking saccharine burst of cherry lip balm.

It is not a fight; not play; not competition; not a tease.

Adrien's lips do all those things.

It is a melt.

The heat of Marinette's cheek is under her fingertips, burning her sweaty palm as she traces the edge of her girlfriend's chin, the fine bone structure sharp. A burst of static thrums in her brain, paralyzing, followed by the arching stab of lightning fear that has her intestines coiling. Her rough hands, too clumsy for this, will grate or chaff or crush or fumble-

Softness grins against her mouth, bubbling, and somehow even through _that_ , she smiles, eyes cracking open to take in the slanted perspective of Marinette, burning cheeks and twitching tight-shut eyelids. Giggles are swallowed and returned, a repositioning of their noses when they smack together, and Kagami learns how to laugh at her own poor performance.

Her well-trained but harsh hands, skimming the surface of softness, testing its boundaries, only _tickle_ as they both try to capture each other's top lip and only end up drooling and smooshing.

They break, and the giggles do too, mostly from Marinette's wide-spread mouth as the beautiful, flushing girl worms her hands together and stares towards the far wall.

That is clearly an error on Marinette's part, one which Kagami enjoys immensely when her girlfriend _meeps_ , as she so often does, and smashes her face into her palms.

Adrien's photographers would be awed by the way that he sits perfectly still at Marinette's desk, legs clenched tight and folded, hands crushing his kneecaps, irises obliterated by pupils.

Kagami only beckons their stupefied boyfriend towards them. His walk is somewhat reminiscent of the brainless shambling of one of those infected cells in the anime about an anthropomorphized immune system that Adrien made them watch. Kagami found it pleasant only because it was an excuse to cuddle on Marinette's chaise and stare at Adrien's equally wide-eyed face, cut not with amazement but the grin of a child being given a puppy and all he wanted to do was _love_ as he laughed and smiled so beautifully.

Kagami had never seen such a smile. The sight was an indulgent addiction she could cultivate and enjoy.

But, _oh_! The softness of Marinette's lips...

On butting into the edge of the chaise and nearly toppling over into Marinette's lap, which has Kagami sighing at the silliness, Adrien gropes for purchase before they writhe together into a tangle of limbs, all warm and easy. Limbs lock crushing tight as Marinette hides her face in their boyfriend's chest.

It is almost enough to lull Kagami to sleep.

 _This_ is hard, but then again, everything worthwhile is.

And, as Adrien loops an arm around her waist and Marinette's sapphire eyes open up to look at both of them with ... _love_ , the softness is more tender and easy than the hard is arduous.

They hold each other, and it is worth it.

* * *

Kagami allowed her fencing bag to slip from her shoulders as she crossed the threshold into her room.

Arms folded over her chest, hands tucked into the pits of her arms, Ladybug was leaning against the wide window to Kagami's room.

An unexpected development that was to be assessed and parsed out.

“Kagami Tsurugi,” Ladybug began with a suspicious level of calm. Given the danger posed by whatever more clandestine akuma must have been attacking the city, Kagami frowned at the unhurried tone.

“Yes?” That would require probing. “We are both aware of the fact that is my name.”

The thrust did not destabilize Paris' heroine, and thus Kagami was still left on the back-foot.

“As guardian of the Miraculous, I need your help.”

“This is a strange request,” Kagami grumbled at the reminder of her failures while squeezing a fist behind her back. “I cannot be allowed to possess the dragon miraculous, as my identity has been revealed.”

A small box inlaid with ornate symbols that she cannot recognize was held out to her, and she admired the craftsmanship. Mastery of, and fixation on, one art form did not preclude the appreciation of others. The flick of Ladybug's gloved thumb popped the small container open, revealing not the choker that Kagami had anticipated, but a golden comb – the one that the abhorrent little witch, Chloe Bourgeois, had flaunted because it gave her the illusion of power in a dozen different forms.

“Kagami Tsurugi, you have proven yourself a woman of integrity and courage. Because I already know that I can trust you to use it for good, to protect others, just as you used the Dragon, I offer you the miraculous of the bee.”

Was this infidelity? She had pledged herself to Longg, yet proven unworthy of the trust that Ladybug had placed in her once. Surely the heroine who was looking at her so softly, bright, standing tall yet easy as if she already trusted Kagami with her life and more must have been aware of that fact. The strangely alluring crystal blue eyes that pierced her and made her feel ... like her skin was tingling in the midst of a thunder storm, crackling pinpoint precise bolts of lightning flashing by her, but safe because there was an inexorable will to the winds – were steady, tight focused but relaxed.

Yet still, responsibility reigned.

“I am sorry, Ladybug, but I have proven myself unworthy of this ... duty.” It was her great shame; the one duty that fell on her not because she was her mother's daughter, but because someone had believed in her, she had shirked.

“No, Kagami.” Ladybug shook her head. “You showed that you could be trusted when we fought Chloe's parents.”

“I will not argue with you,” Kagami sighed, rubbing her brow, unable to suppress the strange hunger to feel the explosion of bliss that was the miraculous magic. “The need must be dire, so I accept provisionally.”

“You don't need to accept, Kagami.” The wooden box strained in Ladybug's hand.

“But what of the akuma?”  
  
“There is no akuma.”

“I do not understand.” This was as confusing as any interaction with Marinette and Adrien could ever be.

“I'm not going to throw you into the middle of a fight again. I'm not going to do that to anyone. I want to give you the chance to choose without that pressure. I want you to have a _real_ choice.”  
  
Adrien would likely cry at that.

Kagami refused to, whatever she felt. A war between responsibilities was never easy to resolve. Which good took precedence? Which need? Which love? Did one have to?

Could she bear another responsibility?

Being needed was as addictive as Adrien's smiles and Marinette's blushes and lips though. So tempting...

“Please, spend some time with Pollen, the bee kwami.” The box was placed into her palm. An easy slackness to Ladybug's jaw and the soft, slick fabric of her gloved hand that lingered lit a fire. It was so tempting to give in when challenged and supported at once. Kagami knew that feeling from all those many hours spent with Adrien and Marinette. Fingertips almost caressed the rough flesh of Kagami's palm before Ladybug pulled away.

“Take time to think about the responsibility and – and what you want without any pressure. I'll be back in a few days to pick up Pollen, if you decide that you don't want to accept. I would be honoured to have you fight alongside us, but whatever you decide, you'll still have my utmost respect. ”

And with that, Kagami watched as Ladybug bounded out of her bedroom window.

Hesitation was always pointless, and no new information was to be gained by simply standing around in the middle of her room.

Settled on her bed after peeling off her socks so that she could slip her feet under the covers of her bed, splaying out and wiggling her toes into her cool sheets, she thought for just a moment about her many responsibility – to her mother, her future, her boyfriend, her girlfriend, and, because one had to be honest about selfish needs, herself.

She opened the box, plucked up the miraculous, and fixed it in place, knowing to shield her eyes. The flare of light that sent sparking shards exploring along her eyelids, bursting in the dark, hadn't yet cleared when a high buzzing voice reached her.

“Hello, my Queen. I am tremendously honoured to be a part of your hive.”

As Kagami tilted her head to take in the appearance of the bulbous parody of an anthropomorphic bee, she realized that there was still so very much to learn.

And so much more that she would have to lie about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My sincerest thanks to all of you who have followed me through this series for all the kind words, supportive comments, and delightful interactions and insights that you've shared. 
> 
> I cannot express what your encouragement, and your simple act of reading, have meant to me.
> 
> For those of you who have only just read this story to its conclusion, it continues in several sequels, [starting with the case-study on anxiety disorder and polyamory relationship negotiations "Honeyed Looks.":](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24038797/chapters/57840418)
> 
> Whatever you do, and wherever your travels take you, may you be blessed.


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